Drkearley, Drchivers & Partners

DrKearley, DrChivers & Partners

JERICHO HEALTH CENTRE

Patient Participation Group

28thNovember 2016

Meeting notes

Present:
Dr Karen Walker Practice
Dr Helen SalisburyPractice
Dr Andy Chivers Practice
Jane Bunyon
Alison Campbell
Elaine Cohen
Derek Day
Deirdre Jalie
Maria Jaschok
Lionel Keet
Sara McKenzie / David Marshall
Mike Meldrum
Barbara Peacock
David Ryan
Roger Smith
Diane Wilkinson
Apologies:
Kathy Archer
Gillian Skyte
Carmen Coxon

1.Welcome and introductions

2.Matters arising from the previous minutes

CQC inspection

At the previous meeting the PPG felt that the practice should have been rated as ‘outstanding’. We asked if there had been any feedback from the CQC.

Dr Walker reported that they had been issued with a ‘requires improvement notice’ from the CQC concerning the storage and fridge issues. Both issues have been rectified. However the new fridge was faulty, and the temperature went down to -13C and ruined more than £6,000 worth of vaccines.

The CQC have also said that they may re-visit the practice at any time during the next six months.

The report is now available on the website – link is below:

There is a feedback link to the CQC, if you wish to share your experiences with them.

3.Patient survey results

Elaine thanked all of those PPG members who spent time in the waiting room handing out questionnaires.

Overall 453 responses were received. More than half of these were from contacts in the waiting room. The result from the links sent out via phone (8,000) were disappointing – only approx. 200.

The results and a response from the practice will be posted on the practice website, and a link sent to the PPG.

Appointments:

89% of respondents were able to get an urgent appointment on the same day or the next day.

Routine appointments were more variable – but there was general satisfaction with access.

Enough time?

This question was included because there is a national policy drive to offer longer appointment times. These are currently 10 minutes.

More than 90% of respondents felt that they had enough time (with both the doctors and nurses).

The doctors said that they manage their time by allowing gaps in the appointment books to enable them to catch up if they are running late. They were pleased that people felt they had enough time. There was some discussion about limiting consultations to one topic, as some practices do. It was generally agreed that this is not helpful, as conditions cannot always be seen in isolation and could result in repeated appointments when one will do. The doctors felt that it could be useful for patients to bring a list of what they wanted to discuss – and that a priority order could be jointly discussed.

Listening skills?

This question was included because the practice was slightly lower than the average in responses from the national survey. 95% felt that the doctors and nurses were very good or good at listening.

Use of website and Patient Access system:

These questions were included to ascertain how much awareness and use there was of the practice website to see if we could use it in the future for health prmotion and self care activities.

The Patient Access site (and app) now allows for patients to book appointments, order repeat prescriptions and since April view the summary of the medical history and test results.

The results from the survey showed that there is very little use of the website – only 11% use it regularly and 28% use it sometimes. Comments indicated that it was only used to get the phone number of the practice.

There were similar responses to the use of the Patient Access System, and a number of comments on the difficulties of registering. This was discussed in more detail – see the notes from the next item.

ACTION: Practice to complete response to the survey and send link to PPG.

4.Discussion: increasing awareness and use of website and IT links to share information and promote self-care

From April 2016, GP practices are required to offer patients increased on-line access to services. Previously this was access to on-line appointment booking and the ordering of repeat prescriptions. This now includes access to the summary of your medical record and test results.

In order to sign up for this (increased) service a person has to provide ID to the practice, and then wait for a personalized access code to be generated. They then need to be given this code by the practice (and again provide ID). Currently the practice telephones the patient to inform them that the new code is available. This process can take up to two weeks. This is because the doctors need to consider the type of appropriate information on an individual basis.

NHS England has issued national guidance relating to this:

The discussion raised a number of issues:

• Two visits to the practice, especially for those working, could be deterring patients.
• Staff need to explain the whole process (this had not been the experience of some PPG members).
• We need to understand what is national recommendation and areas where the practice may have some flexibility to make the process less cumbersome.
• Review the national leaflet.
• Consider developing a leaflet personalized for the practice.
• Consider whether an email could be sent to a patient informing them that their code has arrived (rather than a telephone call).
• New patient registrations – it was suggested that all new patients should be offered a code, as they will be providing ID at that time.
• Understand if there is a difference between the old and new process giving access to medical records and test results.

Local Health Services Information

It was suggested that the practice could not be responsible for keeping the website up to date with lots of health information, but that this should be done at a county or national level.

There is now a smartphone app which is able to provide local information on which services are nearby.

ACTION: Practice to include a link to the app from the website.

5.Issues raised by patients

The reception staff were complemented on generally being friendly and helpful, but an incident was noted in which a practice staff member had said that the reception staff were there to ‘defend’ the doctors. It was agreed that this is not what they were there for, and that this is a potential training need.

Some of the PPG members have experience with recruitment and training and development, and an offer was made to assist the practice. Members would be willing to be on interview panels, or participate in training.

6.Practice update

DrAndy Chivers retirement:

Patients will not receive an individual letter. Patients who currently have DrChivers as their ‘usual’ doctor will be divided amongst the other doctors. It was noted that patients can change their ‘usual’ doctor at any time.

Dr Karen Kearley:

DrKearley will also be leaving the practice at the end of the year.

Dr Paul Ch’en:

DrCh’en will be joining the practice as a salaried doctor in January. He will be working for 7 sessions per week. This will cover the sessions currently undertaken by DrChivers and DrKearley.

Practice Name:

The practice has agreed that it will now be called ‘The Observatory Medical Practice’ rather than be known by the names of the doctors.

7.Any other business

Care Navigators

Deirdre enquired about Care Navigators, and how they could be accessed.

Care Navigators work with vulnerable patients (mostly housebound). They are not clinicians, and patients need to be referred by the GPs. It was agreed that it would be useful to have some information about this service (or a link to it) on the practice website.

ACTION: Practice to add information (or link) to the website.

Date of next meeting: Monday, 20thMarch @ 6.30pm

1