Patient Panel Meeting
Wed 7th August 2013
Present :Dr Parry, Anne Ruffell, Alf Potts, Raymond Davidson, Jan Mulqueen
Apologies :Ian Davies, Jean Smith, Andi Parker, Irene Twamley
Minutes of Last Meeting ; agreed
Matters arising :
1Any Qualified Provider ; this service is now up an running in the surgery provided by Intrahealth.
2Envisage Call System ; problems now resolved and working well at present.
3GP Vacancy – Mr Davies was our patient panel representative during the interviews and Dr Rachel Toft was appointed. She will officially start Mon 2nd September working 6 sessions a week.
Agenda
1Thanks to Raymond for posting more of our patient panel promotion leaflets. Joyce Bainbridge has since expressed an interest in joining our panel. Anne will get in touch with details of our next meeting.
2We have appointed a new “trainee” practice nurse, Eileen Williams. She will be working 8 hours per week, 4 hrs every Monday and Thursday.
3Shingles Vaccine – this will be available from September for patients who are 70 and a catch up for patients who are 79 yrs old. We will contact eligible patients to receive this along with the flu vac. See below paragraphs from DOH document :
Shingles is a debilitating condition, which occurs more frequently and tends to be more severe in older people. It is estimated that around 250,000 people are affected in England and Wales each year, including 30,000 people in their 70s. Around one in 1,000 people over 70 who get shingles dies of the infection.
We plan to offer routine vaccinations to people aged 70 years old to provide protection against shingles. We also plan to introduce a catch-up immunisation programme in 2013 for people aged 79 years. The efficacy of the vaccine declines with age and so it is not recommended for people aged 80 years or older.
The programme will begin from 1 September 2013 and will become a part of the routine vaccination programme for people aged 70 years. The catch-up campaign for those aged 79 will also begin from 1 September 2013
Accident & Emergency (A&E) Admissions
There is a lot of work going on within the Sunderland Clinical Commissioning Group (SCCG) to reduce the number of attendances at A&E. One of the proposals is for an out of hours surgery for emergencies to be held at Riverview Health Centre from 6-8pm and all day Saturday & Sunday. This will be for the East locality patients only. Plans are still to be finalised as the SCCG need to appoint GPs, Health Care Assistants and Receptionists.
Anne will keep the group updated on developments.
Voice Connect - Patient Partner
The surgery is considering installing a telephone facility for patients which will give them access to book / cancel / check and change appointments 24 hrs a day. A demonstration for our panel member will be arranged.
Notices
Jan felt that there were still too many notices in reception. I informed her that now that our envisage system is working we will be displaying practice info on this.
Any Other Business
Many thanks to Jan for her hospitality and a very nice time following our meeting.
Date and Time of Next Meeting
Wed 25th September 2013 at 6pm, Ashburn Medical Centre. I’ll notify you of any change to this venue.