SAXON CROSS PATIENT PARTICIPATION GROUP
Minutes of meeting held Thursday 23rd March 2017
Present: Julie Bryant (Chair)
Michael Rich (Vice Chair)
Wendy Taylor
Janet Jackson
Frances Rigley
Bryan Dalton
Jennifer Thomson
Tony Oram (Practice Manager)
Sue Parkin
Apologies: Ann Hyde
1: Welcome
All were welcomed to the meeting, especially Jennifer who had recently been recruited as a new member. The Chair reported that Ivan Gunn had decided to resign from the Group due to being unable to attend. All members asked that thanks for his service and contribution to be formally recorded. The Chair has suggested to Ivan that he may like to switch to the VPPG and also possibly attend forthcoming evening meeting (if agreed).
2: Minutes of the last meeting held 11th January 2017
Agreed as a true record
3: Matters rising
3.1: The VPPG continues to receive PPG minutes, items of interest and an invitation for individuals to join the PPG. The PPG agenda is sent about one week before PPG meeting offering the opportunity for items to be raised at PPG. There has been no input from VPPG membership to date. In the absence of any communication from the VPPG it was suggested that a confirmatory email, requiring a response, is sent to determine continued interest and perhaps repeated on an annual or biennial basis. It was also suggested within the PPG that a more “punchy subject title” for emails to the VPPG might enthuse VPPG members to contribute.
The Chair reported that she, Michael and Bryan had recently visited the Abbey Medical Centre PPG (Beeston) to brief them on the Saxon Cross Surgery VPPG experience to date. Bryan’s presentation had been well received and their members appeared to pick up on many useful ideas for the potential development of their own VPPG.
3.2: Jargon Buster (JB) - Following the decision at the previous PPG meeting no further work has been undertaken on the draft JB (v2.0) completed in late November 2016. Clarifications are still required where doubt remains as to the currency or correctness of several line entries. These were requested through the Chair, Vice Chair and Practice Manager on 1 December 2016. Tony agreed to complete his review asap.
It was noted that the Chair also provided a “Quality Team’s list of abbreviations and acronyms” on 23 Nov 2016. Although incorporated into JB (v2.0) these late entries do not yet include definitions. It was made clear that once defined the JB would require a further round of review. The Chair has discussed the JB with the CCG’s Head of Quality & Engagement who said there was no problem with Saxon Cross developing their own version and in fact he felt it was good practice. A decision was made at the meeting to proceed with the Saxon Cross JB. It was proposed that the Saxon Cross JB include a disclaimer to indicate that it was a locally produced document not supported by the NW CCG or wider NHS. It was also suggested that the JB be shared with other PPGs that saw the advantage of sharing this resource.
3.3: Annual patient survey & recruitment – The survey had gone well with all questionnaires being handed out within 5 days. Tony expressed the Practice’s thanks to PPG members who had handed out the questionnaire. A minimum of 330 had been required and the results will be shared when available. Issues identified during the survey included the appointment alert bell was problematic at times and patients were unhappy with the wait to be seen. The Practice was aware of this and systems have been improved to help to alleviate this, e.g. catch up slots. All agreed that the survey question about waiting did cause some issues with some patients waiting to be called before being able to continue with the questions. It was suggested that this question be moved to the end and the Chair agreed to pass this on to the CCG.
23 PPG recruitment slips had been returned with approximately 8 people preferring an evening meeting. The Chair has attempted to make contact with some people and had expected a further 3 new members to attend today. Some slips needed clarity re spelling of names, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses. Tony agreed to take back the slips and ask the Practice to sort out the queries and make further contacts.
The Chair had placed a recruitment advert with Inspire (Church Mag) but due to the good response from the patient survey, the advert has been changed to recruit to the VPPG. Due to a high interest in evening meetings it was agreed that the first one would be scheduled for 20th July, from 6.30 to 8.30pm. The GPs were in favour of evening meetings as they were more likely to be able to visit the meeting.
4: Short update from the Practice
4.1: Extended opening hours – there was no further definitive news on the CCG’s plans to negotiate extended opening hours for GP practices from 8-8, Monday to Friday, plus possibly Saturdays and Sundays. It was noted that the Government expect this directive to reduce attendances at A&E. The model for delivering this was still awaited, with expected introduction in April 2018. The view is that there will need to be joint working across all 12 practices in Nottingham West using existing GP staff as there is a national shortage of new GPs. This may mean a Stapleford “hub” with Saxon Cross, Linden and Hickings Lane providing access on a rota basis. The main issue of concern is sharing patients records as there are 2 different IT systems in use, i.e. EMIS Web and SystmOne. The possible move of this practice to SystmOne was under review. This system was more likely as it is also used by Community services.
4.2: The Practice has moved onto the new telephone platform but problems had been found. Work was ongoing with the engineers to find solutions.
4.3: The website has been updated and simplified and the homepage has been tidied up with improvement to the links. Staff lists are now up to date. Access to previous PPG minutes was ongoing. The next Practice newsletter will be available in April.
5: Report from the Patient Reference Group (PRG)
5.1: The Chair read out the results of the recent consultation on over the counter medicines on prescription for minor illnesses. The outcome is that medicines easily available over the counter, e.g. paracetamol, ibuprofen, will no longer be prescribed for short term conditions and patients will be encouraged to buy their own from pharmacies and shops. This will not apply to long term conditions which will still be available on prescriptions. The decision is expected to save approximately £196,626 pa from a prescribing budget of £1.9m, for Nottingham West, Nottingham North & East and Rushcliffe. It was acknowledged that there is a specific issue with care homes where staff sought the assurance of common medications being prescribed rather than exercising their own discretion.
5.2: The Chair read out the results of the latest Mystery Shopper exercise (Quarter 3 16/17). Saxon Cross had continued to be fully compliant with all the standards since the start of the exercise in 2014/15. Out of the 10 mystery calls made to the Practice, 2 were answered in less than 10 secs, 5 in 10 to 30 secs, 1 in 30 to 60 secs and 2 over 60 secs. 9 out of 10 calls were offered an appointment within 3 working days with 1 resulted in no appointment. Comments on the attitude and friendliness of staff will be relayed back to individual practices. Tony reported that due to additional pressure, some extra appointment slots had needed to be introduced.
5.3: There had been a presentation about the availability of local community based pathways, commissioned by Nottingham West for its residents. Most of these needed a referral from a GP but the Let’s Talk Wellbeing was a self-referral service. PPG members had received a summarised list and the Chair offered sight of the fully detailed list for anyone’s information.
5.4: At the last PRG meeting there had been a suggestion that GP Practices be willing to act as receptacles for unused loan equipment. Whilst all thought this was a good idea, the main issue for Saxon Cross would be lack of storage space. However, this might be an initiative that the Care Centre could consider and Tony agreed to explore this. The potential for cross-contamination was noted.
6: Discussion time
6.1: There had been 1 suggestion slip this time which commented about longer consultation times when needed, which could have received a personal response if the contact details had been provided. Tony suggested that the suggestion slip be reviewed to make this option clearer.
6.2: The Chair reported on an initiative introduced by Citizens Advice Broxtowe and working with Central Notts MIND. Citizens Advice staff had received training to better recognise their clients’ potential mental health problems which were then offered help and support from MIND. Provided at Beeston and Eastwood, this service had proved to be successful and had now sought lottery funding in order to continue. Members were not sure whether or not this initiative was available at the Care Centre.
Post meeting note: I have contacted Citizens Advice Broxtowe and patients from Saxon Cross are very welcome to use their service and they would encourage that. To make appointments go through David (CAB advisor who is based at Stapleford Care Centre). They can offer face to face appointments or phone contact whichever is best for the client, Mind will assess their case and work with the clients to decide their next steps.
6.3: A member raised a query relating to annual check-ups and a query about why and what was needed. Tony confirmed that the system between the Practice and phlebotomy was automated but in this case the information might not have been available. He agreed to look further into this query.
6.4: Following a media report of an individual falling ill overseas and their travel insurance company requesting their full medical record, members were told that requests for information from a 3rd party needed to have the consent from the patient. There is an information sharing arrangement in the NHS (with permission) e.g. between hospitals and GPs.
6.5: Following receipt of an unsolicited text requesting feedback on the common “friends and family” recommendation by a member Tony confirmed that this was done at random across a small percentage of patients and not following all consultations. He further confirmed that patients could indicate their wish to opt out of these communications.
7: Any other business
The Chair suggested that following the recruitment of new members the PPG might introduce a members/welcome pack. All agreed that this was a good idea and ideas for inclusion included;
· Welcome message from the Chair
· Terms of Reference
· The Saxon Cross Jargon Buster
· Action Report
· Practice newsletter
· A simple diagram showing the relationships between local commissioners, patient groups and services
The Chair reported that work on the Action Report for 2016/17 had commenced and would be circulated for comment in the near future.
8: Date of next meeting
Thursday 25th May 2017, 2-4
Thursday 20th July 2017 (6.30 to 8.30)
Thursday 14th September 2017 (time to be confirmed)
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