Yarm Medical Practice
Patient Participation Group
Tues 1st September
Present: Dr Z Barron, Dr L Green, CF, AW, JB, SB
Apologies:
Minutes from our June meeting were reviewed and agreed.
The PPG were updated as to the various changes that had happened within the practice since the last meeting:
Staff changes
Maxine Gittus has joined our nurse practitioner team.
Drs Lorna Green, Matthew Shield and Kym Merritt are GP Registrars who will be with us for a year.
Dr Bonavia is due to return at the end of September following her period of ill health.
We would like to than Dr Lane for coming to our rescue as a fantastic locum for the past 3 months.
Dr Tailor will be returning form maternity leave in November.
Dr Donne will be retiring at the end of September and Dr Bielby will be taking her place within the partnership from October.
New call boards
These have been installed in the waiting rooms to enhance the patient’s experience when waiting for their appointment. We will be installing interesting videos, health promotion and practice information.
The PPG will feedback their impressions of the new call boards in December.
Hearing Testing
We have hired out a number of our rooms to Boots and Scrivens in order to provide on-site hearing testing. This will be available via choose and book so patients can select to be seen in these clinics.
Smoking Cessation
There is a new drop-in smoking cessation clinic within the practice on a Thursday afternoon 16:15 – 17:45. This is held in the multifunction room on the 1st floor.
Social Media
We have decided to embark on using social media to highlight what the practice has to offer to the younger generation. Dr Green explained to the group how our GP Registrars have taken this on as a project and are going to set up a Facebook page and a twitter account for the practice. We hope that this will be a useful format to update our patients about changes to opening times, health promotion, vaccination reminders etc. This will be up and running in October.
Nurse Practitioners
Now that we have added Maxine to our Nurse Practitioner team of Pam and Angela we discussed amongst the PPG how to best to maximise our patient use of these valuable resources. Suggestions included updates on the website, info within the practice leaflet and newsletter and including NP info in a poster display.
The poster display in the 1st floor waiting room has been updated to include information about which conditions are suitable for the nurse practitioners to see.
We are also looking into adding this information to the call boards and social media sites.
Practice History project
We received a couple of interesting pieces from patients about experiences at the practice in the 1960’s. SB is going to explore further avenues within local groups to ask for more information from patients.
If you would like to submit anecdotes or recollections about the practice from bygone years then please either drop them into Reception for the attention of Alison Bone or email
Charity Book Stall
Our last collection for the Eva Project raised £184.50
The next nominated charity is Headway Teesside a local branch of The Brain Injury Association.
Many thanks to all who generously donate the books.
Practice Participation Group attendance and development
Members are reminded to send their apologies if they are unable to attend a meeting. This helps with agenda setting and room provision. This can be done via email to or by phoning the practice and leaving a message for Dr Barron.
CF is keen as a new member to find out what other PPG get up to and are involved in within the practice.
We all accept that being involved with the PPG does involve some commitment but the meetings are only every 3 months, are rather enjoyable and you get to be involved in the development of the practice and what we offer patients. We are, as always, still on the look-out for younger members.
There is a poster about the PPG in the waiting room and contact details on this if you wish to speak to a current member about what it entails or just come along to see what it’s all about.
Next meeting Tuesday 1st December 6pm