ALASTAIR ROSS MEDICAL PRACTICE

Patient Participation Group (PPG) Meeting

Minutes

Tuesday, 21st February 2017, 6.30pm

  1. Present

Dr Chowdhury

Anita JonesJulie France

Lesley PatelPeter Barker

Valerie Ford

  1. Apologies

Leanne Norris

  1. Welcome!
  • The purpose of the group is to discuss about the services offered by the practice and any improvements to be made
  • The group should not be seen as a complaint platform
  • As per patient confidentiality, no personal issues should be discussed
  • Everyone’s views must be listened to and respected
  • No discrimination will be tolerated
  1. Nurse shortages due to sick leave.

It was explained to the group that we had experienced unprecedented loss of nursing sessions due to a full time nurse (Olga) going on long term bereavement leave and then our other full time nurse (Una) had an accident and was off for around 7 weeks.

This had a huge impact on the practice as patients were unable to book to see a practice nurse. Lesley sent out an ‘SOS’ to all Bolton practice managers asking if any of their staff who didn’t work full time might be able to help us out with a few hours or a session or two.

We did manage to get some staff to help out with phlebotomy and an HCA role. Delia Ariff (a previous employee who had been working as a nurse elsewhere) agreed to come back to help us out.

Ellen, our only other nurse who worked only one day a week was able to help out by coming in on additional days.

Although we weren’t back to a ‘full complement’ of staff this did help immensely.

Una has since returned and with Delia’s continued help we are now running at almost capacity.

  1. Car park – issues for patients and staff (PB)

Peter expressed concerns regarding parking for patients (and staff) wishing to attend the Health Centre. Dr Chowdhury explained that this was a well-known on-going problem. We had known from the onset that parking would be a problem for a building of this nature and size and the amount of staff and visitors using the centre. As we had input into the design and attended many meetings prior to the build, our feelings and opinions were well documented. This topic was regularly brought up at the building users group meetings and would continue to be discussed. However, up to now no solutions are forthcoming. Any ideas to help resolve this matter would be more than welcome.

  1. Future of the PPG

Encouraging other patients to join the PPG and how can we advertise outcomes of the PPG to patients.

Various ideas to advertise our PPG were discussed:

  • Post the minutes of the last meetings on the Practice Website
  • A PPG noticeboard in the waiting area
  • Testimonials from existing members to be displayed to encourage new members
  • Ideas to ‘spread the word’
  1. Any other business
  • PB asked if issues that affect the patient experience could be discussed at the next meeting.
  • Possibility of an information video about practice staff and their roles – how can this be produced and how can it be put in the waiting area – contact Life Channel?
  • Peter mentioned that he had booked on-line to see the Nurse Practitioner for a blood test and she had wondered why he was there for this with her. We explained that the NP was a nurse who sees patients with acute illnesses and can prescribe unlike a normal practice nurse who sees patients for routine reviews, and tests etc. Because of this confusion we decided that we should remove the facility to book on-line for the NP.
  1. Next Meeting

9th May 2017, 6.30pm