Friends of Greystone House
Minutes of Meeting held on Monday 5th February 2018at 7pm at Greystone Medical Practice
Present:
Dr Joe McGilligan
Jacquie Clayson – Practice Manager (JC)
Chairman (FC)
JP, RA, SM, BW, AW, MF, ER, JR, JB, JR, JW, TS, JS
Carole Watson (Carer Representative)
Treasurer (LAR)
Apologies:
Tom McLaughlin
Hilary Ficken
FC welcomed everybody to the meeting on a cold winter evening.
Minutes of Previous Meeting
The Minutes of the AGM held on 6th November2017 were accepted as an accurate record of proceedings.
Finance Report
LAR reported that our current bank balance is £1,627.96 as per bank statement.Jo Smith passed £30 cash to LAR representing proceeds from the sale of hedgehogs and stockings and this will be banked shortly. This means that our total funds are £1,657.96.
Practice News
JC updated the meeting as follows:
- Staff Changes – Dr Kidwai will not be returning from maternity leave and will be leaving the practice due to family responsibilities. A replacement GP – Dr Emon Farrah Malik has joined Greystone House this week and will undertake 6 clinical sessions per week. Dr Aslett has agreed to continue with 3-5 sessions per week therefore GP capacity should be sufficient to meet patient demand.
- Nurse Angela Earl will be leaving in March to join a Horley practice. Teresa Meeke, currently a community nurse, will be joining the practice in March covering dressing and other Health Care Assistant duties.
- Effective from last week, all phone appointments received during the morning rush will be triaged. This project will be led by Sue McPherson supported by a GP and the Pharmacist. This initiative is aimed at directing patients to the most appropriate treatment including a face to face GP appointment if medically required. In addition, reception staff will be provided with further training so that they may guide patients through various treatment options available. Janis Radford reported that pharmacist Dinesh Rai had been especially helpful in a recent phone call providing advice and re-assurance.
- Doppler (blood flow) analysis machine – JC reported that it was still the intention of the practice to purchase the blood flow analysis machine. After discussion, it was unanimously agreed that FOG will contribute up to £1,000 to the cost of the purchase. LAR/FC to liaise as regards producing a cheque payable to Greystone House.
- NHS England are encouraging GP surgeries to offer more appointments at weekends. As such, Greystone House is joining with other practises in our local network to offer appointments at weekends/bank holidays which will be especially useful to patients who have difficulty attending during the working week. Appointments will be available at Hawthorns surgery next door and also at the Caterham Dene hospital site. These will be staffed by GPs from the local network who will have access to patient medical records with patient agreement. A Dementia Navigator for the local network has been appointed and their service/advice/support will be available to all GP practice patients in the network
- 750-800 additional patients from the now closed South Park surgery have transferred to Greystone House. A project is underway to scan the new patients’ medical records into the EMIS system so that a consulted GP will have a summary record available which will be supported by actual imaged documentation when needed. This is a massive project as the medical records from South Park surgery were all in paper form and also, quite worryingly, not always accurate or up to date requiring a medical professional to review all patient records before loading onto EMIS.Jo Smith reported that a neighbour/friend previously registered at South Park surgery who was nearly 100 years of age had been transferred to Greystone House and was impressed with the service that had been received from our surgery in the short time as a patient. Dr Springett had made a home visit and community nurse visits and other support required had been actioned.
- The planning application for the surgery extension had now been approved by R&B Planning and NHS England require three separate quotations from builders as well as a business case. This all has to be completed urgently in order to approve the funding grant and appoint a contractor this financial year (by end March). The building works is scheduled to take 9-12 months. So, all going well, the additional facilities should be available by this time next year
ESCCG Patient Reference Group Meeting
The agenda for the next meeting scheduled for Thursday 22nd February 7pm at Nutfield Lodge in Redhill has been circulated under separate cover. All FOG members are invited and welcome to attend.
Any Other Business
Dr McGilligan provided a brief overview of the current local and national health care situations. We are now over the worst as regards the excessive demands and incidence of flu is diminishing. Dr M. also cited a recent situation where a close relative had been hospitalised on a Friday and not discharged until nearly a week later where the admission had, strictly speaking, been unnecessary and was more due to the lack of social care in the community. Lack of social care is a serious problem impacting both on primary care (GPs) and secondary care (hospitals).
Dr M. also warned against companies such as ‘Dr Anywhere’ who are advertising in the media and TV where they offer immediate consultations via phone/skype etc. What may not be understood is that these organisations then ‘grab’ the patient registration to obtain the capitation fee thereby de-registering you from your original GP practice.
Tony Smith observed that there had not been many GP appointments available on EMIS. JC advised that this situation should improve this week and suggested that a phone consultation is available where an immediate face to face appointment could be offered if required.
FC thanked John Woolston and LAR for their support and assistance in obtaining the recent planning application approval. LAR observed that John Woolston had been the major mover here in identifying the key issues in the initial application.
Date of Next Meeting
Monday 16th April 2018 – 7pm at the Surgery
Date of AGM
Monday 21st May – 7pm at the Surgery.
JC will invite two speakers, Wendy Johnstone representing Surrey Downs CCG who will speak on the avoidance of waste by minimising prescription medications and also a GP who will speak on first aid for emergency situations.