Practice News For The PPG Meeting On Monday 8th January 2018
Staff
Keith started with us on the 6th November and introduced himself via an open letter at the meeting dated 8th November. Now been in situ for 2 full months and quite a lot has been going on since his arrival
There are 2 new trainee Dr’s who have joined our team, Beth who is in her Foundation Year 2, and Lara who is an ST3 – we would like you to join with us in welcoming them to the team.
Emma one of our Nurses, sadly suddenly lost her father a couple of weeks before Christmas, and has had compassionate leave from the surgery since. We are hoping that she will return on a phased basis soon in January, but during her period of absence we have been supported by Fiona, and Elizabeth who have stepped into the breach over this busy period. We would like to express our thanks for their ongoing support.
The number of gifts that our very kind patients donated to the staff in the practice was overwhelmingly generous once again. Keith has written personally to as many of the donors as possible – those that left us names or cards with the gifts – but a number were handed in totally anonymously. The staff would like to thank everyone who thought of us so please, if you know anyone that did donate, and didn’t leave a contact, please pass on our thanks. It really is very much appreciated – although our waistlines may be saying otherwise!
Initiatives
Building links in the local community
Keith has been keen to build links with the younger generation in Long Stratton, and has now held 2 meetings at Long Stratton High School. The first to see what we could do for the School to help in their efforts at providing pastoral care and support to the students, and the second, which he attended with Dawn, to witness the great work that LSHS are doing in communicating key health issues to their population. The open day was highly energised, innovative, thought provoking, interesting and tackled a number of key issues that the youth of today face such as drug and alcohol abuse, smoking, mental health (especially around the internet and cyber bullying), and sexual health.
The connection that has already been forged will go from strength to strength and our nursing team have committed to providing a talk or session within the PSHE framework that the school offers. These students are the future adults who will soon be accessing our services in their own right. There are 4 diabetic students on the list at the school, and they / their families will be invited to our evening that is being organised in April.
Through the School we will be able to reach a further 650 families of the students with our Practice Newsletter and Keith hopes that he will be able to encourage someone to participate as a part of our PPG following on from the links that have been created
Keith is going to be spending time physically down in the reception area of the Practice on a number of days throughout January, just talking to patients about their experiences within the surgery – it won’t be an official “survey” only an anecdotal canvassing of opinion. If there are any really clear messages or actions that can be driven from the “chats” we can start to react and implement wherever possible.
Staff have been encouraged to provide their feedback and a number of points have already been implemented – see attached summary for your reference.
GDPR – General Data Protection Regulations
A new European regulation which comes into force in May 2018 enhancing the existing Data Protection Act. All Businesses including the surgery will have to be reviewing their procedures around the control, and access of people’s personal data. The regulations are far more stringent and the fines for breaches are much higher than previously. There is a lot of work going on as we speak to prepare ourselves fully for the impact of the changes – more to follow at the next PPG Meeting
DSQS - Dispensary Services Quality Scheme
Each year our dispensary has to conduct a quality audit on the service that it provides. This year, Keith has spoken to Paula our dispensing lead, about prescriptions that are never collected. It has become apparent over the last couple of months that there appears to be a number of prescriptions which are requested, that do not get collected. Working through the process it is clear that there is a lot of wasted time and money, and we feel that if this could be tightened up our service could be improved.
- Patient drops in prescription
- Prescription goes to GP for verification / signature
- Prescription sent to dispensary
- Dispensary pick the required items if in stock
- If not in stock, an order is raised
- Once all stock is available the items are dispensed & bagged, usually within our 3 day service level agreement
- Bags held in system awaiting collection
- If not collected the bags are unpacked
- Items reversed on the system to place them back into stock
- Placed back on shelves awaiting the next request.
The survey that is being conducted will quantify how many non-collected items there are, and we will try to investigate the reasons why they haven’t been picked up.
There may be a number of reasons from – forgot, symptoms cleared up naturally so didn’t need the items, couldn’t get here, perhaps even patient passed away – but at present we honestly don’t know why the situation is occurring and what, if anything, we can do to help.
EPS (Electronic Prescription Service) is still on the agenda for discussions but there are a number of very good reasons why the Partners do not want to go down this route. It is ultimately the Partners decision and we need to respect their point of view.
Housing Growth
Nothing further to report on this issue – apart from developments continue to be approved in the locality. Keith & the Partners are fully aware of all planning applications and discussions with the CCG and our Management Company will continue. It will feature strongly in our 5 year plan.
Training
Keith is looking carefully at the whole of the Practice from a training and development point of view. There is a programme of upskilling being put into operation for our nursing team, and our Team Leads went to City College on Friday to see what is available for development courses through them. All staff are being asked about their aspirations, and a full training review will take place to ensure our whole population are supported in giving the best possible service. We have a great team of people in the surgery here, and we really want to support every single one of them to maximise their full potential.