Minutes of Bethesda Patient Participation Group Meeting

14 October 2015

Held at Darwin Court

Apologies: 4 members

Present: 8 members, Sue Clarke, Rachael Cousins.

Introduction of new Member

Rachael welcomed xxx to the group and everyone introduced themselves.

Thanet Health Reference Group

xxx and xxx attended a meeting at Bethesda on 24 September which was chaired by Clive Hart which was aimed at setting up meetings between PPG’s and to improve communication. A copy of their feedback is attached to the minutes.

They also attended a 50+ Festival at the Winter Gardens on 6 September and Silver Sunday on 4 October at St Augustines. Feedback from both these meetings are attached to the minutes.

xxx said that the next HealthWatch Meeting will be on Friday 16 October at Holy Trinity Resource Centre at 2pm.xxx is currently the Chair person for Healthwatch .xxx asked what Healthwatch was and xxx explained that they deal with complaints about GP’s, Dentists and Hospitals and point people in the right direction as to how they should persue them.

Integrated Nursing

Rachael informed the group that the surgeries in Thanet have joined together in groups to look at how they can improve patient care. Bethesda is part of the Margate group along with The Limes, Northdown surgery and Union Row surgery. The Margate group are looking at District Nurse Teams and Practice Nurse teams working together as a Pilot scheme from 1 January 2016.The District Nurses are not employed by the surgeries but already work with them. The teams would speak on a daily basis and try to organise the best care for a patient, ie if a patient needs a leg dressing and a diabetes check it may be that instead of the District Nurse doing the dressing and a Practice Nurse doing the diabetes check the Practice Nurse may be able to do both to save two appointments or visits.

There is a meeting next Weds 21 October for the Nursing Teams to meet up and give ideas as to how things can be improved/done differently.

Surgery Update

Rachael informed the group that Dr Mangam had now left the surgery and that Dr Pryde is leaving at the end of October and Dr Fernando at the end of November. The partners are currently in the process of recruiting new GP’s to replace them.

At the current time for Patient safety we are not taking on any new patients.

Richard Simmons and Alison Earl who are Paramedic Practitioners are seeing patients on Tuesdays each week in the surgery.

Russ from Porchlight is also at the surgery on Thursday mornings from 10am to 12pm to help patients with Housing, Money, Education, Health ,Drug and Alcohol and Confidence issues.

Patients can either be referred by their GP or they can self refer.

Appointments

The group discussed that appointments are not always booked appropiately with GP’s as sometimes it is not the GP that can help with the problem/issue that they have.

xxx spoke about Champions for people aged 50 +that are being funded by National Lottery Money. There are plans to have 2 in each electoral area. Their aim is to point people who are isolated and don’t know where to go for issues/problems in the right direction. Further details are attached to the minutes. xxx said that a Community Café has been set up next to the Tom Thumb Theatre for people to drop in and meet other people and xxx mentioned CROP who are an organisation who help people with form filling in.

Prescriptions

xxx said that she had experienced problems with her Repeat Dispensing prescription with Woolls saying that it needs renewing when in fact they actually have a few more issues left to be collected. Action : Sue to investigate.

xxx said that working in a pharmacy she sees a lot of stockpiling of medication and patients requesting medication that they don’t need which all adds up to huge amount of wasted medication and money.

Rachael said that Dr Jenkinson would be holding a meeting in November about Poly Pharmacies which is to try and eleviate problems with patients having medication they don’t need anymore.

AOB

Rachael asked the group for feedback on the screens at the Reception desk as she said that some patients have said they have trouble hearing the Receptionists through them The group agreed that it is difficult at times especially when it is busy to hear. Action: Rachael to investigate the cost of having speech holes put into the screens.

xxx said that there are only two disabled bays for parking in the surgery and would it be possible to have another designated bay and also to have some on the road directly outside the surgery. Action: Rachael/Sue to investigate if this would be possible.

Next Meeting date Wednesday 13 January 2016 at 10.30am to be held at Darwin Court .It is hoped that xxx will be able to give his talk on Thanet Community Pastors at this meeting.

Mission Statement

“Good Communication “