Sloan Medical Centre
Minutes from Patient Participation Group
Tuesday 9th November 2010
Present: Apologies:
Helen Proud – Sloan MCDr Ollie Hart – Sloan MC
Cherry Beecroft - Sloan MCAileen Miller – Patient
Elaine Kirby – Patient & ChairBeatrice Padley – Patient
Christine Hall – Patient
Cynthia Smith – Patient
Anne Kerrison – Patient
Kath Hirst – Patient
Beverley Wright – B Rd Patient
Janet Reed – Patient
Lillian Munn – Patient
Jane Fenelon – NHS Sheffield
Agnes Jenkinson – Patient
Dave Beal – Lo’s Pharmacy
Dr Marion Sloan – Sloan MC
Minutes from previous meeting agreed
System Online
On the Day appointments are bookable ‘during the night’ via System Online, a patient who woke in the night feeling unwell logged onto the internet booking service and was able to book an appointment for that day in the ‘early hours’.
Repeat Dispensing
Janet asked about the length of notice which had to be given at Lo’s for her to be able to get her prescriptions via repeat dispensing. Dave Beal explained that if they kept 6 or 12 months worth of a patients medication this would cause huge amounts of wastage. By asking the patients to ring or ‘pop into the pharmacy’ this means that patients can say which items they do not require that particular month this means that medication doesn’t get dispensed and the GP who issued it doesn’t get charged on their drugs budget.
For patients travelling abroad how many months worth of medication can they take with them? – Dave unsure exactly on this but will check. Jane stated that patients going on holiday can receive up to 3 months worth of prescriptions at one time. The ‘rules’ on this will be clarified for the next meeting.
UPDATE – Both Dave and Jane came back to the practice with the same figure of a maximum of 3 months supply at any one time.
Follow – Up Appointments
Some patients have had difficulty booking a follow up appointment with a certain doctor after being asked to do so by the doctor themselves. The procedure at the moment is if there is a pre bookable appointment with that doctor the patient is booked in, if not the patient would be asked to ring on that day at 8.30am and try to get an appointment, however sometimes this isn’t possible as all the appointments have gone for that doctor by the time the patient gets through on the telephone. At the moment the practice isn’t changing this system, but if the patient is registered with the on-line service they could try booking themselves in.
Recycling
Patients have asked if the surgery recycles? At present we don’t as there is a cost. Patients suggested we could ‘house’ the recycling bins at the bottom of our car park, this may be a far cheaper option.
Marion said the practice has a large amount of cardboard which could be recycled and asked Helen to get costs of this for the next meeting.
Lo’s pharmacy send their cardboard to the head office for recycling.
A Patient suggested it may be more cost effective for the practice to pay someone to collect it in a van and take it to the tip.
Opening Hours
Marion explained that due to an increase in our patient’s list size we are looking at providing more appointments either during the day or opening 8am until 8pm. Patient’s asked if the practice had a limit on the number of patients we would take on? – Helen explained that we have an open list for any patient residing within our practice area at present with no view to alter this at the moment.
Marion said one suggestion was to have a nurse led triage service and asked if that would appeal to any of the patients present? – All patients were unsure about this.
Mrs Munn wanted to add that she has had very good experiences with our telephone advice service recently.
Texting
Marion asked if patients would find it beneficial to be able to text a mobile number to be able to cancel appointments? – Yes all agreed that if they had the use of a mobile phone this would be useful. One suggestion from a patient was to have an automated message when you initially telephone the surgery which could then give you different options to choose from e.g an option to book an appointment, request telephone advice, get results & then be given a mobile no to be able to cancel an appointment. The practice is going to look at the texting option in the coming months.
Length of Appointments
Via Elaine a patient asked about length of appointments with doctors. All doctors appointments are 10 minutes in length, if a patient knows before hand that they require longer they should ask for a double appointment at the time of booking, however asking for a double appointment should not be abused.
Notice Boards
Patients would like more notice boards up in the surgery for more information regarding services within the practice.
Helen will take this to the next business meeting.
Snacks and drinks machine
One of the doctors asked if patients would like us to provide a snacks / drinks machine. All present agreed that this isn’t necessary as the waiting time is minimal and this would cause other problems i.e spillages/ scalding and litter.
Volume on Intercom system
A Patient asked if we could turn the volume up slightly in the upstairs waiting area as she attended this week and didn’t hear her name being called out.
Helen would look into this.
UPDATE - The volume was found to be lower than the downstairs waiting area and was therefore turned up slightly.
Any Information from NHS Sheffield Via Jane
Your Health Matters – This is where patients make a small pledge to improve their own health. The PCT is in a desperate financial position and patients need to start taking a certain amount of responsibility for their own health.
Date & Time of Next Meeting: Tuesday 8th February 2011