FEATHERSTONE MEDICAL PRACTICE
PATIENT PARTICIPATION GROUP
MINUTES OF PATIENT GROUP MEETING HELD ON
WEDNESDAY 19th NOVEMBER 2014 @ 1.15PM
Present:Margaret Nutt – Practice Manager
Philip Hanson – Chairman
Ann Healey – Secretary
Audrey Coleman, Barbara Osborn, Christine George
Annette Hanson, Keith Strachan
1 Apologies: Dr Mubashar Saleem, Dr Muzaffar Saleem, Lorne Taylor
and Rosemary Tedds.
On behalf of the Group, Philip extended our sympathy to Audrey on
the recent loss of her husband John.
The normal business agenda for this meeting had been shortened as
Richard Miles, Chairman of Kingsfield Medical Practice, was joining
us later as per Minute 5.
2Approval of Minutes of 17th September 2014:
These had been circulated prior to the meeting and were approved.
3Matters arising:
- Website
Margaret reported that installation of the revised EMIS software is
due to be completed by 11th December and the practice website should
be fully up and running by mid-January. Currently it was possible to
book appointments, register as a patient, change contact details, and
(by e-mail) request repeat prescriptions.
Although May PPG minutes did appear on the website, Margaret
hoped that these could be brought up to date shortly.
On the NHS Choices website, Philip drew attention to how
unrepresentative it was to allow one unhappy patient (out of nearly
2000 patients) to so significantly influence Featherstone’s rating on
this site. Only five patient rating were averaged and, of these, one
patient had been allowed to submit two related to the same issue.
In statistical terms this meant that one patient, proportionately .05%
of the practice’s total, had been allowed a 40% influence on its rating.
- Speakers
Keith was thanked for suggesting the speaker at our last meeting,
Trevor Doxey, senior physiotherapist at MoseleyHallHospital.
He gave a very worthwhile talk on the prevention of falls.
Margaret said she had not yet been able to get a speaker from
Birmingham Cross City CCG but in any event it would probably be
someone from the CCG’s PPG. It was agreed to discuss this further
at the next meeting.
- CCG – PPG Funding
The Group congratulated the practice on the success of its PPG
funding appeal – it was a very satisfactory outcome.
- Flu vaccinations
These were progressing well. Margaret confirmed that any patients
in the vulnerable groups, who had not attended, would be contacted.
- Pharmacists
Audrey had kindly updated the list of pharmacists’ hours and the
services offered. This would be placed in the Patients’ Handbook.
Margaret reminded us that any arrangements for a pharmacy to collect
prescriptions from the practice had to be initially set up by the patient
contacting the pharmacy.
- 2014 Review
The year began with the welcome news that Dr Muzaffar Saleem was
remaining at Featherstone.
Some progress had been made with the practice’s website.
Surgery hours had been extended a little to offsetthe cessation of
open surgery. This change seemed tobe working well.
A designated doctor for the patients over 75 had been introduced.
The PPG had reviewed the 2013 GP survey results and the ad hoc
receptionists’ survey.
We had updated the Patients’ Handbook and worked with Margaret on
her revision of the PracticeLeaflet.
Membership remained a problem particularly in recruiting
younger people. We’d offered to change to an evening meeting if this
helped.
4Staff news:
Maria was not continuing as a part-time receptionist. Her hours were
being covered satisfactorily at the moment.
5Information exchange: Featherstone and Kingsfield
Practices/PPGs
Richard Miles joined the meeting and gave a very helpful outline of
Kingsfield. They had >9000 patients (Featherstone <2000) with 3 or
4 doctors in surgery simultaneously and appropriate support staff.
It was also a teaching practice usually having medical students. As
might beexpected they had more in-house clinics and additional
facilities such as a pharmacy (Askers) and ECG equipment. Their
website development was at a similar stage as that of our own.
Kingsfield’s PPG was formed in 2013 (Featherstone 2006) and met
monthly (ours bi-monthly) with a similar number of members. With
a much larger pool of patients they found PPG recruitment easier than
we did, and Richard was able to delegate fairly readily. He was
interested in our policy of having a speaker at some of the our
meetings and our maintenance of a Patients’ Handbook.
Philip thanked Richard for giving a very lucid account of Kingsfield.
It was extremely useful for us to hear about their practice and PPG.
6Any other business:
Care Quality Commission (CGC) inspection banding:
There was a brief discussion on the CQC news of the past few days
concerning their priority banding of most GP practices. Although
many practices had notbeen inspected, the CQC had issued 1 to 6
ratings of them to indicate their assessment of the priority for a CQC
inspection – 1 being the highest priority in need of an inspection and
6 being the lowest. Some practices, rated as high priority for
inspection had objected to this method of banding. Featherstone,
which had not been inspected, was placed in band 6 – the lower
priority.
ECG equipment
Margaret mentioned that we were expecting to have some new
‘mini-ECG equipment which was easier to operate in surgery. Its
results would be interpreted remotely by an appropriate specialist.
7Date of next Meeting:Wednesday, 21st January 2015 at 1.15pm.
Philip closed the meeting by thanking the practice for its
hospitality and everyone for attending – wishing them well for the
festive season.
Philip Hanson Ann Healey
Chairman Secretary
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