HIGHLANDS SURGERY PRG
Held at The Estuary Club, 1386 London Road, Leigh on Sea SS9 2SQ
Minutes of meeting held on 28.3.17.
Members present: BG Dr Grant LH PH (Chair) AJ EM NM SM MP DR JJ-S PS-S RS ST BW DW (Asst. Practice Manager)
Apologies
Apologies were received from GL LL LH SJ LS & MS
MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING
The minutes of the last meeting were read and agreed by all to be a true record.
UPDATE FOR SUCCESS REGIME
Dr Grant advised that plans were still ongoing. He explained the thinking behind the changes to A & E was to try to centralise the service, and it was felt that best practice would be to have one centre of excellence. A protocol would be put in place as to where it would be best for the patient to be seen, this would be decided by the attending paramedics on the grounds of the protocol. It was agreed by those present there is economic soundness in applying such a system, but towns are getting larger with plenty of new houses & flats being built, and in a perfect world the answer would definitely be to have a centre of excellence at all three hospitals. Basildon Hospital will still be the centre of excellence for cardio thoracic care, and Broomfield Hospital for plastics and burns. There is at present no decision as to whether Southend Hospital will be a centre of excellence for stroke patients.
NURSE SARAH
Nurse Sarah attended our meeting to explain her role within the surgery. She explained that she deals with complex care discharge, where it is necessary to try to co-ordinate and provide for a patient with complex needs when they are released from hospital. She is also responsible for patients in the community with multiple complex needs. She is able to work with them and therefore hopefully prevent, where possible, admission to hospital. She is also able to provide medical support and extra assistance for those at home, again reducing unplanned admissions to hospital. She also has care for all dementia patients, caring for those living alone and those who have a carer at home. Sarah is a point of contact for the carer and they can ring her for help and advice. Hopefully this provides more co-ordinated care. Sarah advised this worked very well in care homes. She is able to visit care homes every week and also has a link with Social Services, being able to invoke their help if necessary. She also works closely with the District Nurses, and considerable liaison work goes on there. The service has been in place at Highlands Surgery for eighteen months now. The CCG have now taken up the idea and want to roll it out throughout the town. Patients are now often discharged earlier than they used to be, but with a list of things for the doctor to action. In Highlands Surgery this is taken on by Sarah.
HEALTH EVENT
The date for this event is 21st June 2017. The venue will be Belfair’s Academy, as for previous events. Debbie Warrington had composed a draft letter which she brought to the meeting for those present to read and comment on.
She explained she would be starting by inviting the 40 – 50 year old age group. It was hoped that this would also catch those with children, and also other relatives. Debbie re-iterated that the surgery was not targeting those diagnosed with mental health issues, but those wanting to learn more about these issues. The first tranche of invitations will be sent out at the beginning of April, with a request for attendance slips to be returned by May 1st. If necessary a second tranche can then be dispatched. As before there will be stalls at the event and leaflets etc to go in ‘goody bags’.
PRG SUMMER NEWSLETTER
Debbie informed us she is now looking for articles or suggestions for the Summer Newsletter. It would be helpful if she could receive these by April 19th, so the newsletter can be drafted by the next meeting. We discussed some information that could be included in the Newsletter. We thought it could be helpful to include: changes to services, such as the changes with blood tests, holiday vaccinations, out of hour’s chemist opening times, test results, Babylon, coping with high temperatures during summer and the cost to the surgery for DNAs. It was also suggested we remind patients again that it would be helpful for the surgery to know their mobile phone and email address for extra communication. Any members who would be happy to write an article should let Debbie Warrington know.
Time and date of next meeting.
The next meeting will take place at The Estuary Club on 25.04.17 at 12.30pm