Havelock Grange Practice

Havelock Grange Practice

Minutes of Meeting

Meeting Title: Patient Forum / Date: Wednesday 15th July 2015
Time: 17:00 / Venue: Meeting Room 1, One Life, Hartlepool
Chair: GP

Present: RK, WH, MS, BC, EC, PW, RM MC IC, Michelle Martin (Practice Manager), Dr Eaton &

Dr Acey

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1 Apologies for Absence

ST, MM, MC, LH & JE / /

2 Minutes of previous meeting

Agreed & seconded as a true record

4

/ Ambulance Trust - Douglas McDougall
The group welcomed Mr McDougall to the meeting and thanked him for his time. Mr McDougall introduced himself as Head of Emergency Care, part of his role is to ensure vehicles are on the road to provide emergency services when needed.
DM explained to the group that there are two categories of calls “Red One & Red Two”, both of which are life threatening calls, of these types of calls 75% are responded to within the eight minute protocol, the clock starts ticking as soon as the call is received. Other categories within the ambulance trust are: -
· G1 Green – has a response time of 20mins
· G2 Green – response within 30mins
· G3 Green – non-emergency calls i.e. admission booking.
Booking the calls depends upon the operator triage of the call, they have pathways to follow which then dictate how the call is handled.
Quarter one of 2015-16, 5,222 red calls were received, since 1st April 2015, 70.79% were dealt with within eight minutes, quarter two, 79.28% were dealt with. Statistics today show that 26 “Red” calls were dealt with in eight minutes with 100 calls taken in total. There are no standards for any of the “G” calls as yet but DM is trying to obtain such information.
Ambulances cover both Hartlepool & Middlesbrough, vehicles are located in Easington Road & West Park Road, of these one is available 24/7 and has 1 paramedic on board, whilst the other is a rapid response car. All 999 & 111 calls are triaged down the same pathway to determine which response is needed.
Urgent calls handled by the operator are given to the ambulance crew to manage. Intermediate care is also being introduced for such calls. It was also stated that operators are given 35secs to triage such calls. Ambulances do have tracking facility in the vehicle which enables them to be on-route to the patient.

continued

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/ Call handlers are trained to talk through resuscitation scenarios when children are involved.
MS raised an issue were she had been told about an accident on the A19 and that the patient laid on the road for hours as there were no ambulances available, DM unable to comment re this specific incident without information, but stated that such incidents need to be reported via the Serious Untoward Incident process and if they are not reported then they cannot be investigated.
DM also stated that two rapid response paramedic cars with the same technology as ambulances are deployed in the same way as ambulances.
DM also highlighted that the Ambulance Trust also have £6million efficiency savings to make and that they have already identified £3.8million which involves back office staff and not front-line workers.
MS raised concern that ambulances are taken away from Hartlepool and also the booking of ambulances via 0845 number. DM has no influence on 0845 whatsoever.
RK spoke about annual bid for funds and why is the ambulance trust being asked to save £6million regardless of targets.
BC also expressed her thanks to the Ambulance Trust regarding a recent personal incident in which she required their help and assistance.
GPthanked DM once again for his time, DM offered to make annual visit, PPG to decide on this. / /
/ Matters Arising
a) New Practice Website now up and running (same web address www.havelockgrangepractice.co.uk) – the majority of the group have visited our new website and are very happy with it. They also like the translation facility and enquired about the information we receive regarding the questionnaires that are available for patient to complete. Information obtained form them are added to medical records.
b) Texting Service – MM stated that only recently information had been received that this service is going to be available for a little while longer and that the Practice will therefore start using the process again. / /

5

/ Government Plans for 7 days per week opening - GP
The Practice has yet to discuss what the Government have recently put in the press about GP Practices being open 7days a week. Initial thoughts are that this would dilute the existing service over seven days and would not mean an increase in sessions. Out of Hours and Walk-in-Centre will still be available. / /

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/ The Practice and other Practices in the town are experiencing difficulties with recruiting; there is the opportunity to provide GP training for 72 applicants, however only 26 applications have been received. Discussions in the Practice have also centred on utilising Pharmacists, Practitioners and Technicians to improve access and deliver patient care.
MS stated that feedback regarding a trial of Practices working together re federation and CQC inspection in which one doctor and a trained nurse were on duty with nothing to do between 12noon and midnight and that North Tees are desperate for staff and that they are looking to Philippines for nurses to fill the gaps. / /

/ Open morning/fundraising – GP
The group are keen to repeat the open day which also included Flu Saturday. MM will ask staff if they are interested in helping with this again this year. PW raised the pen portraits which the group agreed to provide, please forward information to MM or CN. It was also suggested that pictures of the group and GP’s be obtained. / /

/ NHS Choices Results – AE
Highlighted that the Practice has again received negative feedback about the Practice. We are constantly looking to improve our service and access and would welcome suggestions as to how this can be achieved. The group had lots of positives about the Practice, MM stated that when feedback is received, we encourage the patient to contact us to discuss their concerns but feel we are captured by the minority who make negative comments and that we do receive regular verbal positive comments the Practice , however it would be good if these positive comments were added to the website also. / /

/ Agenda Items – influencing practice change - SA
We feel that discussing things that are out of our control such as ambulance waiting times were not really best use of the groups time. / /

/ AOB
CCG Consultation – GP & PW had attended the meeting which consisted of 12 attendees and 2 slides. Services discussed were Podiatry, MSK, Diabetes, which GP & PW no knowledge of and got the impression that the meeting was just a tick box exercise and that decisions had already been made.
Appointments – information had been given to a patient that the Practice are not doing pre-bookable appts and that the patient had been instructed by the GP to make another appt to see them, this then hinders continuity . AE explained that the Practice does offer such appts, however when there are holidays the Practice will change the availability of appts to help with access on a daily basis, but only short term during holidays. However when GP’s request to review a pt the GP (sometimes) will book the appt themselves or give the pt a slip so that reception request an appt be released.
The issue of the Practice list size was raised and whether it was safe if we don’t have enough appts. We highlighted that at present we are taking on patients who are more demanding and complex and we are aware that other Practices are asking for ID prior to registering a pt when our Practice does not, this we feel as a Practice discriminates against those who are not able to provide the specified ID such a driving licence or passport. / /

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/ This is a problem in itself as we are now seeing a cohort of patients with drug addictions etc which take up more time especially Duty GP.
A member of the group was upset recently at having her medication review done over the telephone. We explained that many patients like this service and preferred it to having to book an appointment, we also explained that the Practice had reviewed what could be done over the telephone rather having a face to face appt, this also increases access for those patients who are best seen face to face.
As technology changes, so do the way in which we do things, SKYPE calls have already suggested as a way in which to consult with patients.
We regards to discrimination when registering MS asked whether a secret shopper could be used or Healthwatch. This issue is being raised with NECS by the Practice. / /

/ Date & time of next meeting
Wednesday 9th Sept 2015 at 17:00 / /