NEWSLETTER
SUMMER 2016 EDITION
by Hicks Group Patients Forum
PRACTICE NEWS
Care Quality Commission (CQC) Inspection. A thorough inspection of both surgeries took place on 17th May 2016. The CQC were impressed with the practice’s induction plans, with our safeguarding of vulnerable adults system and with our training of registrars and medical students. They were also impressed by the Patients Forum and its Health Events. The Practice was happy with the draft report and the full and final report is now available on the Practice website: or or the CQC website.
Minor Illness Nurses. We do not have enough minor illness nurses so Annette Farrow is to be trained. This will take 6 months.
Patient Access to Appointments.The practice will be trialling 10-day, 6-day and 3-day pre-booked appointments online, on the phone and in person at reception. The impact of this will be known at the end of July. Hopefully this will take the pressure off the phones and the telephone list of patients for GPs to phone. For the nursing team, appointments can now be booked across sites, i.e. at Roman Gate or Charles Hicks irrespective of where patients are registered. Patients may be sent to the other surgery if there are appointments available. The hope is that this will give more choice to patients.
Partnership Discussions.These are still ongoing. All of the Partners and Managers of the 3 Hunts practices (Hicks Group, Priory Fields, Acorn Surgery) have met. The Partners are now meeting every 2 weeks. The practices may not merge, but they may be under one roof in Huntingdon itself, in which case financial savings will be made. The talks are positive but there is still a long way to go.
The Practice is very keen to have a Blood Pressure machine which also gives read-outs of height and weight, for the Roman Gate surgery. Charles Hicks already has a BP machine, funded by the Patients Forum. The machine will reduce pressure on staff time as patients will be invited to the surgery to take their own measurements, which they will then hand in to reception. They will, of course, be seen by a clinician if any issues are identified. The Patients Forum has agreed in principle, to fund this, at a cost of approximately £5,000.
FUND-RAISING
Merle Bailey, a member of the Patients Forum, attended the Godmanchester Porch Museum Handicraft Sale with her knitwear. She shared a stall with Philippa Liepa, a Godmanchester resident, who very kindly donated her takings of £40 to the PF cause. Total takings were £61.50.
BOOK SALES so far this financial year have totalled £587.70 and CARD SALESfor the same period came to £79.70. We would be grateful if patients could leave the book cases as tidy as possible.
The Patients Forum had a stall at the annual Godmanchester Gala at the beginning of July. The stall had jigsaws, DVDs, books, cards and knitwear for sale. As well as this there was a raffle for a fruit and vegetable hamper.The amount raised was £85.50.
EVENTS
Dr Urjit Soni gave a Talk on 26th May on newer advances in the treatment of diabetes and on factors other than blood sugar which affect diabetes and general health. The Talk was well-attended and Dr Soni answered many questions that were of concern to patients after the talk.
It is hoped that Dr Carolyn Smithson will give a Talk on The Menopause in the autumn.
COMMUNICATIONS
The Patients Forum Website
The Communications Group within the Patient Forum has advertised for a young computer savvy volunteer to come up with ideas as to how to make the website more inclusive, i.e. to orientate it towards younger patients as well as to older patients and to present articles/topics in a way that will appeal to the younger generation. The PF has received 2 offers of help. We would welcome suggestions of Talk topics that would appeal to younger people. These can be placed in the suggestions/comments box in the surgeries. The website is:
SUGGESTIONS/COMMENTS We have had many complaints over the past few months about the telephone and appointments systems. To alleviate the problem we have suggested that patients should try, where possible, to telephone later in the day for appointments and/or to register for online appointments. There are leaflets explaining how to do this on the Patients Forum noticeboards in both surgeries.
HEALTH NEWS
Peterborough & Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (PSHFT and Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust (HHCT) both face significant sustainability challenges. Hinchingbrooke hospital is not sustainable in its current form clinically or financially and the P’boro Trust is not financially sustainable in its current form. The CambsP’boro total population is forecast to grow by 10% between now and 2021 with P’boro growing by 11% and Huntingdon over 65s group growing by 17%. At the end of May 2016 the Trusts running both hospitals agreed that they would work together on a full business case in readiness for a merger on 1 April 2017. An Outline Business Case has been prepared which recommends that in order to sustain and improve services for patients, both Trusts would benefit from working as one organisation in the future.
The Trusts are fully committed to engaging with their staff and members of the public, and have started this process in current board meetings. There will be a review of the Full Business Case by both trust boards in September before final approval in November 2016.
The Outline Business Case,all 96 pages, can be found on