Combs Ford Surgery Patient Group meeting
Tuesday 24th January 2017
Minutes
1Welcome and introductions
Present: Christine Steward, Anna James, Liz Payne, Rachel Clarke, Ron Whymark, Sally Kitt. Ian Clark and Thomas Griffiths were welcomed to the group. Elizabeth Storer from Healthwatch was in attendance.
Apologies: Roger Smith, Maggie Knock, Dianne Simpkin, Lisa Chapelle
2Minutes of the previous meeting
The information from the Patient Group meeting had not been put on to the website as agreed.
ACTION SK (done!)
3Feedback from Healthwatch
Elizabeth Storer from Healthwatch had attended the surgery waiting room on two occasions in December to get feedback from our patients. Overall the comments were positive and the surgery had received a ‘four star’ rating.
Elizabeth provided the group with a report of comments received and feedback throughout 2016 (copy attached).
There were some concerns about the % of negative comments but without more information it was difficult to know to which specific areas the comments related. It was also noted that the comments had been made by a very few individuals and might not necessarily be representative.
Elizabeth felt that over the course of the year the surgery was receiving more positive views from patients. Given that our circumstances have not changed (ie we are still with far fewer GPs than in previous years) it is difficult to know whether patients are simply getting used to the idea of NOT seeing a GP every visit or whether our information campaigns are being effective – probably a bit of both! Those present commented that they felt that they were being seen by an appropriate clinician.
It was felt it would be helpful to know when the comments were made so we could track progress. Elizabeth was thanked for her report.
4Suffolk Primary Care
See attached leaflet explaining rationale for joining the new Partnership.
There is no doubt that the partnership is being formed as a response to a crisis in the NHS and General Practice in particular. In the first instance changes will be administrative and should have no effect on patients. The partnership will cover a huge geographical area. It is hoped that in the long run patients will benefit from changes that we will be able to make to clinical models.
It was acknowledged almost inevitably the merger will result in another layer of management However, it was hoped that some of those management /administrative roles may well be ones that were previously being done by Doctors – thereby freeing up doctors and clinical staff to see patients.
SK reported that the practices that are involved in the merger are very keen to improve things for staff working in the NHS and patients alike.
5New phone system
The surgery will be installing a new phone system in February. This is to keep up with technological changes. One of the options that we will have is ‘call queuing’ for patients who are trying to get through in the mornings. We will have the capacity to hold calls in order of receipt and to tell patients the number that they are in the queue. Everyone present thought this was a step forward. The pressures on appointments was recognised, and telling patients to call at 8am for an ‘on the day’ appointment is essentially only adding to the problem of jamming the phones. At least with call queuing the patient will have an idea of how long they will have to wait; will not need to keep trying to get through and will be able to see that they are moving up the queue.
(NB – Dianne Simpkin had commented that she very much liked the new message that Dr Muir had recorded)
6Support for older people
The meeting discussed support for older people that the surgery provides. SK reported that Combs Ford is committed to continuing Home Visits where needed and the role of the Emergency Care Practitioner is to support the GPs with Home Visits.
We also have a system in place to ‘Avoid Unplanned Admissions’. This searches for patients who have a higher probability of being admitted in an emergency eg more than two chronic illnesses; calls to the out of hours service; previous admissions. These patients are then assessed to see if there are any actions that we can take to avoid admissions. Whilst these are not always older patients, most of them are at least 80. It was reported that not all the staff at the surgery have been made aware of the Avoiding Unplanned Admissions scheme.
An ageing population is recognised to be ONE of the pressures on the NHS at present (but they are not the only one. Members of the group were keen to explore ways of helping the surgery to support our older patients. It was felt that there were different ways of doing this:
6.1 Promote local services and available support
The Patient Group would like to see the surgery promote local services and available support; recognising that the health of older people is linked to other factors than simply their medical condition. Our next newsletter / website could help to promote existing support services. We could also produce a leaflet for our clinicians to have in their rooms to give out.
6.2 Develop our theme of self – care / taking responsibility for oneself
It was felt that patients might be interested to find out some facts about the surgery. Whilst of themselves these facts might be interesting they also might demonstrate the pressures on the surgery. Everyone agreed to come up with ONE idea that they thought patients might be put in the newsletter (see below)
6.3 Continue to share information that people may not be aware of
Eg the surgery provides Hearing Aid Batteries (post meeting note: there is NOT a poster up in the waiting room about this!)
7DNAs (Did Not Attend)s
DNAs are very frustrating for staff and other patients alike. It was suggested that we could have a static poster in the waiting room with the number of DNAs recorded each month.
We also discussed how the surgery responds to DNAs. Currently we write to ‘repeat offenders’ and warn them that they may be removed from our list. It was felt that it might be more useful to find out the reason that people are not attending. SK would review the correspondence.
8GP Plus
GP Plus (offering patients an APPOINTMENT with a GP in the evenings and weekends) will be starting in Stowmarket (at Stow Health) from February.
9DATE OF NEXT MEETING
Tuesday 25th April 2017 6pm
SURGERY FACTS: Ideas from Sally and Adam – our Administrator
Please can you let me know which of these you think our patients would find interesting / you would like to see in our next newsletter…. Plus any ideas that you might have yourself……
1)How many patients are registered with us
2)How many of those patients are aged over 80 and how many are over 90. How many are under 5
3)Number of appointments available each week
4)Number of prescriptions dispensed each week
5)How much is our most expensive drug
6)How many referrals to hospital we make every month.
7)How many times do people visit our website
8)How many blood samples do we take each week…
9)How many of our patients have (for example diabetes, cancer, mental health issues dementia)
10)The number of flu jabs that we give each year
11)How many telephone calls we take each day
12)How many of our patients have a baby each year
Ideas from Anna:
- Some "Did You Know....." using stats and info from the Practice
eg
- age groups of patient population (compared to National Average?)
- number of missed appointments comparison
- average no of doctors appointments per patient (if we can get this figure then we can revisit this stat in 6 months)
- average number of Nurse appointments for patient (as above)
- "Right Person, Right Time....how are things working?" Patient feedback using Ian's story of his 4 appointments (anonymised of course).
Ideas from Liz
I wonder if the surgery could be viewed as a resource centre, with us giving information to various sections of our patients.
So for the elderly or lonely Mears Care Group have been running a "meet and mingle" session at Hillside on a Friday afternoon. I know they initially set it up with the Co-op but I think Mears runs the sessions alone now. Caroline (07595 962 230) runs the sessions and it may be worth contacting her to see if she would write a short paragraph about how the session works, transport availability and what costs are involved.
I also think we should just "advertise" facilities local to Combs Ford, otherwise transport costs could make it difficult.
There is an exercise class that operates for the over 50 at Red Gables, I'll try and pick up info for that and details of the meal.
It might be quicker to contact Red Gables and get them to tell you what schemes they run, and they could write about the relevant ones for the newsletter.