MINUTES OF ST GEORGE’S PPG MEETING HELD ON MONDAY 12 OCTOBER 2015

PRESENT: Malcolm Ginever (Chair), Joanne Graves, Paul Graham, John Hewitt (Secretary), Helen Miller (Vice-Chair), Rod Jones, Melissa Prinn, Lorraine Pulford, Carolyn Thackstone, Ian Thompson, Carol Wilson (Practice Manager)

APOLOGIES: Dr Matthew Jelpke (Senior Partner), Ian Munro, Thelma Robertson.

MINUTES OF LAST MEETING (on 7 September). These were agreed as an accurate record.

MATTERS ARISING:

Healthcare Provision for new homes at Sharphill Woods: The CCG had requested monies to provide health services to the new housing population, and appreciated the need to rationalise the provision of care in the area. There was some spare capacity, including land, at the Gamston practice to take on additional patients, but St George’s may also be affected.

Healthwatch Update: The recent changes to the local carers’ network would not involve any change to the existing support given by the Carers’ Federation in Rushcliffe.

Sunday Funday on 13 September: Melissa had attended this event with her pre-school children, and found it enjoyable and useful.

FEEDBACK FROM PATIENT ACTIVE GROUP MEETING HELD ON 7 OCTOBER:

NAPP (National Association of Patient Participation Groups): The practice agreed to invoice the CCG (Clinical Commissioning Group) for the membership fee. (ACTION CW) We need to ensure that as a group we make good use of all the help and information that NAPP can offer.

FLO: This is an NHS computer system that enables patients with certain long term conditions to provide more accurate readings at home. The Practice’s reluctance to use it will be overcome when it has been fully integrated with their SystmOne computer system.

Teledermatology: The Practice already has a dermatoscope to check moles. The CCG have now provided a mini-ipad to take photos of them which the Practice, with patients’ agreement, can send to the QMC’s Treatment Centre for assessment.

Shared Decision Making (SDM): This is a dialogue between patient and GP to help patients make informed decisions about the right care and treatment for them. There are 38 Patient Decision Aids (PDAs) on the Right Care website – - which can help patients to make decisions relating to a range of long term conditions. Leaflets about SDM will be provided in the reception areas of practices. It was agreed that this subject would be included on the agenda of our next meeting. (ACTION JH)

PROMOTION/RUNNING A VIRTUAL (ONLINE) GROUP: Peter Taylor, the Chair of the Ruddington Medical Practice, gave us some suggestions for setting up and running such a group based on his own experience. Flyers/posters/information on the Practice website had produced little result. Face to face contact was the best way to recruit. Suggestions were as follows:-

(a)Include invitations to join the group on prescription forms;

(b)Make the minutes of PPG meetings easier to understand – reduce jargon – and issue them earlier, to encourage comments from the online group;

(c)Try to communicate with the group once a month, by inviting responses and informing;

(d)Send the group the monthly Healthwatch and RCVS (Rushcliffe Council for Voluntary Service) newsletters, for information;

(e)Invite their comments on the Practice’s new patient welcome pack;

(f)Send them patient survey questions for comment, and the analysis of patient feedback, for information;

(g)Encourage comment/interest on patient matters through facebook. A member of Ruddington PPG links into the local mums’ facebook page (1,400 people!). The mums can link into the local schools’ facebook pages. We could also link into the West Bridgford Wire facebook page.

(h)Speak to the organisers of the Youth Centre attached to West Bridgford Library to encourage interest from younger patients.

The time involved to maintain a patients’ facebook page would probably be about 1 hour a week, when up and running.

Healthwatch Update:Next Prioritisation Panel will be held on 10 November at garden Court. A report will be produced in the New Year to show whether satisfactory improvements have been made in transporting renal patients to and from dialysis appointments at the City Hospital. There was some concern about the support given to mental health patients, particularly at weekends, under the new crisis centre arrangement. Patients were encouraged to leave notes of their experiences on the healthwatchnottinghamshire website. Rod asked whether the savings from closing mental health wards at the QMC had gone to supporting health care in the community for the affected patients.

Patient Numbers/Staffing/Practice News: The number of patients was now 10,099. This was an increase of only 55 since July. It would be useful to have a breakdown of the number coming from existing local practices, compared with patients new to the area. (ACTION CW) St George’s probably had capacity for about 11,000 patients. It therefore could be at least 2 years before the Practice would need to think about accommodation changes.

Blood Tests: An anti-coagulation service has been introduced for patients who are generally stable on warfarin. Therefore, patients will be able to walk out of their local surgery with the right warfarin dose. They may also be able to book their blood tests online.

Support for Self-Care Week:This was scheduled for the week of 16-22 November, and had encouragement from the CCG. Ideas included: information in the surgery, setting out a list of items for a first aid box, how the elderly could keep healthy during the winter, where patients should go for different kinds and degrees of symptoms, health advice for parents looking after young children, general advice for those who can usually only get to a doctor at limited times. Further advice for self-care can be found on the NHS Choices website or the “ site. PPG members were invited to send Malcolm some ideas for self - care week as soon as possible, although the general view appeared to be that the dates scheduled were too close to our support for the flu jab days, and a promotion at a later date would be more practical.

IMPROVEMENTS TO POSTER/INFORMATION DISPLAYS IN WAITING ROOM: Carolyn Thackstone was thanked for her notes on this issue. It was agreed that we should discuss it further at our next meeting. (ACTION JH) Meanwhile, we would try to ask some patients at the flu jab days what posters they look at and how we might improve the displays.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS:

Melissa Prinn was thanked for the well-being folder that she had prepared. This would be put on display in the reception area.

DATE OF NEXT MEETING: Monday 14 December at 6pm in the surgery.

JOHN HEWITT

PPG Secretary