Headstone Lane Medical Centre

PPG Report 2017

Introduction

The Patient Participation Group (PPG) is a group of patients that represent Headstone Lane Medical Centre. The aim of a PPG is to discuss and implement improvements to the services that the practice is currently offering.

We are always looking to expand the number of patients in the PPG so as to have a rounded and representative group of patients to work with. So in addition to our current PPG members, we wanted to offer patients a chance to join the group.

The practice advertised through posters on our notice boards to request if any patients were interested in joining and contacted frequent visitors to the surgery.Unfortunately, no additional members joined the PPG this year.

When the PPG was created initially we tried to ensure we had equal ethnicity representatives(our practice population has 50% Sri Lankan's). The first year our group only represented 22% of Sri Lankan patients, the second year there was an addition of two extra Sri Lankan patients. There was no increase in the number of members in the third year. The PPG is currently at the same size as it was last year and represents the same demographic.

Our current group consists of patients from a number of backgrounds including White British, Indian, Sri Lankan and Pakistani. The age range includes patients between the ages of 29-72. This is an improvement on previous years in including younger patients from the surgery and we have maintained the number of patients representing the elderly. However, as the majority of our patients are between 35-75 years of age, we feel the current PPG members are representative of the current practice population.

The groups represented a range of care groups which we thought was appropriate, however the practice felt that the PPG was not completely representing the working group patients of the practice. We felt this was due to the meetings being held on weekday afternoons.

Unfortunately, on the day of last PPG meeting which was held in November 2017, only 33% of the members were able to attend with some members who had been hoping to attend, informing us that they would be unable to due to a change in circumstances. This is a significant drop on last year’s meeting of 50% attendance.

Review of last year’s action plan

In last year’s PPG meeting, 6 improvement factors were discussed and decided upon for the practice to look into.

They were:

  1. Monthly newsletters added to practice website.
  2. Audit of SMS appointment reminder service.
  3. Audit of missed blood test appointments.
  4. Utilise practice website more.
  5. Keep notice boards up to date.
  6. Parking restriction petition.

Outcome of last year’s action

  1. The practice made the monthly newsletter available online on the practice website. Previous months newsletters were also added to the website for patient reference.
  2. The practice website is advertised on the waiting room screen to inform patients that this service is available.
  3. The practice put together a parking petition which was sent to Harrow Council. The practice put together a leaflet to inform patients of the parking situation at the surgery and in the surrounding area.
  4. The practice routinely checks the waiting room notice boards to ensure they are not congested and contain relevant and up to date information.
  5. The practice ran an audit comparing the number the number of missed blood test appointments from January-June 2016 and January-June 2017 which shows an 80% reduction in the number of missed appointments.
  6. The practice carried out an audit to compare the rate of missed appointments since the SMS reminders had been introduced to measure its effectiveness. The audit shows a reduction overall in the number of missed appointments but there is a large variation from month to month.

Meeting

This year, our meeting with PPG and staff members took place on Thursday 30th November 2017 at 1pm.

Outcome of meeting:

There were many suggestions from patients and the practice staff. The following points were considered to be of highest priority currently.

  1. Annual survey.
  2. Maintenance of car park.
  3. Welcome pack for new patients.
  4. Parking petition.
  5. Confidentiality in waiting area.
  6. Practice website utilisation.

Action

  1. The practice is undertaking an annual survey, a copy of which was given to the PPG members at the meeting. The practice will put the results together and look at what areas patients would like improvements on as a priority.
  2. The practice will look into having the parking bay lines redone in the car park. PPG members mentioned that there are some loose slabs on the ramp at the entrance of the surgery. The practice will look into getting this fixed. The practice will make sure the parking bays which are reserved for practice staff are signposted correctly.
  3. The practice will look into creating a welcome pack for new patients when they come to register which will include information such as what services we provide, our contact details, forms to sign up for Patient Online and so on.
  4. The practice has sent the parking petition to Harrow Council and is waiting for a reply. We will chase the response. The practice will look into sending a copy of the petition to our local MP/councillor/mayor.
  5. Regarding confidentiality in the waiting room, the practice will look into putting a line/marker so that the person talking to the receptionist has some more privacy. The practice will train staff on increasing confidentiality despite the difficulty with the layout of the reception area.
  6. The surgery will look into finding out how effective using the practice website is. For example, how many hits do we get on the website currently?

Conclusion

The conclusions of the actions discussed at this year’s PPG meeting are currently pending. Patients and PPG members will be informed and kept up to date with the outcomes through the monthly newsletter for patients and additionally the quarterly newsletter sent to PPG members directly.

This report has been published on the surgery website ( for patients to view and also will be advertised in the surgery by posters for patients to have a look at the outcome.

Opening hours

MON9am-7pm

TUE9am-7pm

WED9am-7pm
THU9am-1pm
FRI9am-6.30pm
SAT8am-10am

Care UK will be taking over for out of hours.