Meeting of the Newcastle-North Locality PPG

Meeting of the Newcastle-North Locality PPG

Held on Wednesday 18th January 2017

1. Present: Ernest Green(Chair) David Hardy(Sec) Colin Oakley, Mary Oakley, Tim Hardie:

Barry Stanyer, Lillian Barker, Pat Trow , Angela Bromley, Kevin Phillips

2. Apologies: Peter Hall.

Before continuing with the meeting the Chairman was pleased to welcome two new delegates to our meeting Mrs Pat Trow who was from Chesterton (Heathcote Street) and Kevin Phillips who would be representing Kidsgrove practice.

The Chairman in welcoming the new members said it was very pleasing to be able to have the Kidsgrove patients represented at a locality meeting and along with the other members of the group he said that if Kevin and his group needed any assistance with moving his group forward we would be pleased to assist in any way we could.

3. Minutes from the last meeting: Passed as a true record.

4. Matters arising from previous meeting:

(i) Managers locality meetings

The Secretary reported to the meeting that he had not yet received the dates for the 2017 manager’s locality meeting yet, but as soon as they were made available to him he would circulate the rota to members.

DH went on to say that when the dates and times of the Managers Locality meetings are known he would then make out a rota consisting of two members from each practice (only one to attend) with the dates of their attendance, if for any reason the allocated person cannot attend then a substitute would be asked to attend.

Lillian Barker asked if it would be possible for members of our group to receive the minutes from the manager’s locality meetings that they attend, then they would be able to share the results of the meeting at our next locality meeting, DH said he would ask if that would be possible and report back to the group.

The Chairman suggested that whoever attends the Managers meeting, should make out a short report and deliver it to the next Newcastle-north locality meeting……. on-going.

5. Chairman’s initiative:

(i) Common Survey’s

The Chairman outlined his plans to coordinate the surveys that each individual practice held each year, he said that it would be beneficial to all the practices to have a standard survey asking the same agreed questions of each practice therefore being able to identify areas of common ground as well as highlight the good and not-so good areas of each practice.

The meeting debated this issue for some time as some members were concerned that it might lead to unwanted rivalry between each practice, EG said that it was not about who did what better or who didn’t it was just unifying the different groups into one overall overview……continued

1.

The members agreed to take this proposal back to their groups and at the next meeting discuss it again, including the number and make up of questions, the number of survey’s taken and time frame of each survey.

(ii) Common PPG’s Action Plan.

EG had produced an action plan outlining the work that each PPG would sign up to, it would consist of work that the PPG’s could do in the future and it would allow the group to chart the work completed, he thought that the form would be a generic form for every group to adopt but would allow for individual groups to set out their own work and time frame.

The meeting debated this item for some time and the consensuswas, it was a good idea but would need more work doing on it before all the groups could commit to adopting it.

(iii) DNA’s (Policy’s from different groups)

The Chairman wanted to discuss the way in which each individual practice dealt with DNA’s(did not attend) as it was a problem that was causing some concern given that every DNA is an appointment that someone else could and should have had. It was clear that each practice had their own way of dealing with this problem, the meeting agreed that DNA’s were unacceptable but due to the nature of this problem it would be very hard to co-ordinate a unified approach as most of the practices deal with this problem in their own way, but that should not deter us from seeking to improve our own number of DNA’s.

6. Individual Practice News:

(i) R.J.Mitchall, Waterhayes, Butt-Lane:

Colin Oakley began his report by telling the meeting about his groups success in distributing the “message in a bottle” campaign, CO said he had taken delivery of more of the tub’s and with the help of his practice staff they could distribute them out the patients.

Secondly Colin was pleased to show the meeting a short video that his group had made and was showing it in the reception he said the benefit of this was being able to highlight any health topic as well as any up to the minute news from the practice, the meeting praised Colin and his group for their work in this area of patient information.

Finally, Colin told the meeting of his disappointment that the two new Doctors at his practice were no longer going to become practice partners.

(ii) Heathcote Street Chesterton:

Lillian Barker was pleased to inform the meeting about the two new Advanced practitioners that were now working at her Chesterton practice, LB said that the practice was now beginning to feel the benefit of having the two-extra staff working which was taking some pressure off the surgery.

LB told the meeting her group was already planning their next newsletter, coupled with the newsletter they were planning to make a large pictorial display of the Staff using photographs so that the patients know who they are and what they do at the practice.

Lillian also informed the meeting that her practice was in the process of changing its name from Heathcote Street to Appledale and she and her group can really feel the practice moving forward and to celebrate the name change they were planning a big launch event.

In closing her section of the meeting Lillian said that they were planning to hold a carer meeting to support the carers as well as working towards making the practice a dementia friendly one.

2.

(iii) Kidsgrove.

Kevin Phillips who is the new representative from Kidsgrove expressed his pleasure in attending his first locality meeting, he told the meeting that he and his group had held their first meeting at the practice and although the turnout was low he was confident that given time his group would flourish, all the members of the locality group told Kevin that they were ready to offer any help he and his group needed.

(iv) Talke-Pitts:

EG. told the meeting that his group had agreed their work plan for 2017, The prospective SCC councillor would be attending the PPG’s February meeting, another local politician the MP,for Stoke on Trent north would also be visiting the practice in March 2017.

EG told the meeting the clinical staff at the practice had reviewed the 2016 survey results and have formulated an action plan to address the negative responses, EG also told the meeting that he feels staff at the practice are getting a better insight into what the PPG has to offer the practice and are now gaining a better understanding of their place within the practice.

EG went on to explain how the distribution of the “message in a bottle” was going ahead but his PPG were concerned about the possible breach in the patient confidentiality if Patients asked them to help with the filling in of the forms that go inside of the message tubs, EG said that his group were considering reviewing the compliance and confidentiality agreements for his PPG members.

In closing his section of the meeting EG said that despite the NHS choices web-site showing “awaiting visit” for his practice there were no visits planned for the foreseeable future.

(v) Audley:

David Hardy began his section by informing the meeting about another service that his practise was losing, the Audley drop in clinic has been cancelled from January 2017 this follows his practice losing the foot clinic at the end of 2016, DH said that although there were alternative venues for Drop in clinics but to attend any of the alternative clinics it meant catching several buses for those patients without cars, Along with the other practices in the locality DH spoke about the completion of the 2016 survey and the overall pleasing responses for his practice

DH said that his PPG had highlighted the “message in a bottle” scheme by having a large poster campaign leading up to the distribution of the tubs on the 24th January.

7. AOB:

(i) Pharmacy2you:

The Chairman wanted to ask the meeting about the distribution in our locality of the Pharmacy2you literature that patients were now receiving through the post coupled with a major TV campaign.

EG said that he felt that the company was misleading patients with their claims and failed to explain the limitations of the service, another area of concern was the use of the big blue NHS trade mark which the meeting thought might make some patients think that the company was a NHS business and therefore giving a false impression, several members said that the new mail-shots were printing the names of the local practices on their letters again giving the impression that this amenity was endorsed by the practice.

The Secretary was asked to communicate with the CCG regarding this issue and to report back to the members without waiting for the next meeting, The Chairman said that he felt the frail and elderly patients of our area needed to be told about the concerns this locality were having with this service.

3.

(ii) Meeting Time/Date:

Following a request from Chesterton (Heathcote Street) the meeting was asked to debate the changing of our meeting Date/Time, Lillian said that due to an increasing work load she was finding it difficult to make the Wednesday evening meetings and had been unsuccessful in recruiting anybody else from her group.

Lillian went on to say how her group wanted to be a contributor to the success of the locality group but felt that if she and her group were excluded from attending because of the time/date of the meetings.

The Chairman confirmed the initial meeting date/time was set up by all the members when the locality was launched but if change was needed to allow the best attendance to all our meetings we must not exclude any member without first trying to find a suitable answer to the problem

Several different dates and times were debated in an attempt to come to a lasting solution but due to several members being unable to commit to any of the long-term changes it was suggested that we would agree a date and time for the next meeting thus giving us all time to coordinate with our own PPG’s and re-visit this problem at our next meeting.

It was agreed to hold our next meeting on Tuesday 14th March and not Wednesday 15thbut to keep the time as 6pm till 8pm, and re-visit the problem at that time.

In closing this section of the meeting EG said that it was the duty of all locality members to do everything in their power to attend our meetings and if they can’t attend they must make every attempt to supply a substitute.

Meeting closed

Next meeting March 14th 6pm till 8pm

Venue TBA

4.

.