Minutes of the Audley PPG meeting
Held on Wednesday 14th October 2015:
1. Present: Susan Withers (Chair) David Hardy (Sec) Eileen McGuire, Joan Brassington
Joan Polles, Mary Doherty, Susan Brockley, Alan Durnall, Julie Stokes (practice manager)
2. Apologies: Kevin Shenton, Val Pearson, Mike Joynson, Susan Edwards
3. Minutes of previous meeting.
Julie Stokes requested that an alteration be made to the September minutes as there were two items that were incorrect (i) date of Dr Dubb starting date (2) incorrect dates shown for the flu clinics, the Secretary amended these items and the minutes were then passed as a true record of the September meeting.
4. Matters arising from previous meeting:
(I) War on Waste.
The Secretary gave the meeting an update on the venues where the War on waste leaflets have been distributed to, DH went on to say that Ian Wilkes had taken a large number of leaflets to pass on to other business’s in Audley as well as venues in the Halmerend area.
Alan Durnal and Susan Withers suggested that the leaflets should be put into the prescription bags when they were dispensed, DH said he would enquire at the pharmacy if this could be done. DH told Alan Darnall that he would liaise with Mike Joynson regarding his payment for the printing of the leaflets
5. Practice Matters:
(i) Flu-Clinics.
Julie Stokes wanted to thank all the members of the group who had helped with this year’s Flu-Clinics, JS went on to say that the clinics this year had been busy and recognised the part that the PPG had played in the smooth running of the clinics.
There is one more planned Saturday morning clinic but JS said they may need to do more if required and requested assistance with the extra clinics if needed, the group agreed to assist if and when required. JS also informed the meeting that the practice staff were unable to organise their fund raising efforts in time for this Saturdays clinic so it would be available for the panel to continue with the fund raising for Pink week.
Members who have volunteered for the next flu clinic (17th October)
Susan Withers (till 10.15am) Susan Brockley (from 10.15 till finish) Mary Doherty (full clinic)
1.
(ii) Survey.
JS told the meeting that the practice was in the process of entering the results into the computer programme but more time was needed to complete this job, Julie went on to say that she would like all the results to be entered before the end of October
Alan Durnall told the meeting that he was ready to prepare the final report as soon as the compiling of the results were completed.
(iii) Virtual Patient Panel.
Julie explained to the meeting that the practice would like to re-visit the concept of a virtual PPG’s to run in conjunction with our group, JS said the virtual PPG would enable the practice to connect with sections of the patient pool unrepresented by the physical group. Young mothers, Students, working patients, and any other minorities within our practice, the meeting discussed the ways to advertise for these patients DH has produced a number of posters and a power point for the TV screen which it was hoped would be running asap, DH also posted the adverts on the Audley PPG Facebook page and asked members to pass the advert on to reach as many people as possible.
Alan Durnall suggested to DH that we should also make use of the “what to do in Audley” web-site as this had a larger audience, DH said he would post it on that web-site as well.
(iv) Enhanced QOF Health promotion
Julie wanted to update our position on this subject since the group had agreed to use Dementia as our topic to work in conjunction with the practice.
Julie outlined the reporting procedure which has been designed to show the awareness of our patient population, and how relevant it is to our campaign
Julie said the report should include
· The timing of our campaign (this period would include the flu clinic dates)
· The Topic (Dementia)
· Number of contacts (this figure would include Tests done during the flu clinics)
· Outcomes
· Extent of the PPG involvement (this will take into account our work during the flu clinics)
JS said that the involvement of the group with the flu clinics has given the PPG an opportunity to attempt to educate patients about Dementia by using the promotion boards and interacting with the patients whilst they were resting after their flu-jab this process has had an effect on patient understanding of the disease and the ability to be screened at our practice.
2.
6. Monthly Health Target.
DH requested that following the advertising of the pink week on our notice boards we would continue with the Dementia theme using the posters that have been used on the stand during pink week, the meeting agreed and DH said he would re-position the posters immediately after the flu clinics.
7. Congress / Locality report.
DH informed the meeting that following the last meeting of the Newcastle-North Locality group there had been a lot of concern over the implementing of the EPS prescriptions scheme and several members of the locality group were still requesting better communication between the Pharmacy’s and the patients, it was noted that this scheme could not be implemented in this practice until sometime in the new year
DH informed the meeting that he had been invited to the next meeting of the LMC (Local medical committee) in his role of Patient rep for the Congress
8. Pink Week update.
The meeting was told that the amount raised to date was £147.50 and there was an unspecified amount in the pink collection box that would be added at the end of the flu-clinics which was due to be the 17th October (extra clinics may be required) the meeting decided to use this clinic as the last and to total up as soon as possible after that date moneys to be counted and then passed to the Pink week representative.
9. AOB.
(I) Patient complaints.
Joan Brassington requested clarification from the meeting following a complaint by one of the patients during his visit to the flu clinic (complaint about the music in the reception) Joan followed the procedure regarding individual complaints by informing the person that the PPG does not deal with individual complaints as the practice has its own procedure and any questions should be delivered to the Practice.
(ii) Concern about press reporting.
Alan Durnall reported his concerns over the recent stories in the national press regarding the payment of GP’s to stop sending Cancer patients to Hospitals in certain areas in the UK Alan wanted to know if this was the policy in North Staffordshire.
DH said that he would attempt to get more clarification about this story and report back as soon as possible.
Meeting closed.
Next meeting will be held on Wednesday 11th November 2015 at 4pm