Southwell PPG
Minutes of the meeting held on Monday 23rd January 2017 at the Southwell Medical Centre
1.Apologies: These had been received from Dr Reeves, Sheila and Don Fox, Jen Stark, Ann Smith Dennis Brown, Jane Zdanowski.
2.Minutes of meeting held on 12th October 2016: Agreed as a correct record
3.Matters Arising:
3.1Installation of digital signage system: It was noted that the Television screens to replace the Jayex system were in place and it was hoped to have the new system operational shortly which would display much more patient information.
4.Chairman’s Report: The new chairman expressed his concern at the lack of attendance by patients, particularly by younger patients, but was gratified to see representatives from Brackenhurst. It was noted that we need email addresses to send information out to members and Kieran Goncalves from Brackenhurst agreed to be the point of contact with all Brackenhurst students for the next year.
The chairman advised that he would be getting together with the new committee before the next meeting.
5.Report from the Medical Centre
Nigel was pleased to welcome representatives from Brackenhurst to this meeting. Students represent a large group of our patients and their input is important as we plan the way the practice works. It was suggested that “Brackenhurst Issues” becomes a standing agenda item for these mtgs.
Nigel advised that demand for appointments has been huge since Christmas – the most he had ever seen during his 15 year career. They have had a loss of surgery time due to Dr illness which has exacerbated the problem, and the number of people who did not attend for booked appointments was significant (7 Dr appointments wasted on one single day in December).
The pressure was such that on one day in mid January they had direct contact (face-to-face or telephone) with 2.8% of the practice population. The national average is for surgeries to have contact with 70% of their patients in an entire year so this is a huge number.
Recent CCG withdrawal of the care home visiting service during the busiest time of the year had impacted significantly on GP’s workload.
They have been trying to recruit to a part-time GP role as Dr Tomlinson-Cox (now Dr Richmond) is returning to work 3 days/week. Unfortunately this has not been possible to-date and locally there are 23 practices currently recruiting for similar positions. Dr Zaidi and Dr Hafeez (long-term locums) will continue to cover the other 2 days/week.
The surgeryis grateful to Dr Zaidi, Dr Hafeez and Dr Evans for their excellent service and level of continuity of care that they have provided during Dr Richmond’s leave.
The practice are looking at working more closely with Newark practices in some areas where economies of scale may be advantageous. Nothing has been formalised, but discussions are underway around centralised dressing clinics, a centralised home-visiting service for acute illnesses in the housebound, and a new care home visiting service.
They very much appreciate the letters and NHS Choices comments of support that they have received recently – all the staff and Drs find them very encouraging.
Nigel noted that it appears that the expansion of Southwell in terms of housing is about half completed. The resulting impact of patient numbers has been small so far but they are continue to monitor this.
The practice also continues to look at different ways of working / skill-mix etc as the current model of GP practice in the UK is changing and will need to change further. This is all in response to increased workload and under-investment in the NHS and social care over a number of years.
Nigel reported that the Drs are being pressured by the CCG to re-examine their referral habits to hospitals and their prescribing of drugs. The CCG has to make huge savings, and is asking all clinicians to review the way that they work and prescribe.
Kate Sartain commented that the Government’s proposals on 8 to 8 working were unsustainable. Tony Morris felt it was a political problem of under investment and not enough doctors being trained, 7 days a week working in his opinion was not practical.
John Elkington commented that he was concerned by the words which had appeared at the top of the counterfoil to prescriptions stating that ‘home visits would only be made for bed-bound and terminally ill patients’. What happens if the patient is infectious or unable to get to the surgery? Dr Bajracharya advised that a doctor would always be the one to make a decision and that the patient contacts and conditions would be logged for every patient contact.
6Open Meetings:
6.1Mental health, anxiety and depression: It was noted that it had been hoped to hold an open meeting on this subject last year but it had not proved possible, but that it should be a priority for this year.
6.2The management committee would look into other further open meetings.
7.Art Displays: These are continuing, the art work is supplied by a local art school who change the displays at intervals in conjunction with the Practice. Recently the new Dispenser, James (a Southwell resident) had displayed his photographs). These would be up for a further weeks or so before resuming with the Art Group pictures.
8.Other Reports:These were very brief as we had run out of time.
8.1Stake Holder Reference Group: Geoff Tinker reportedthat he was now the chairman of the group since Dennis Brown had resigned and would give a full report at the next meeting. Geoff handed out an EMAS post card indicating their response times amongst othertargets not being met!
8.2Newark and Sherwood Clinical Commissioning Group: Geoff reported thathe is now a lay member of this group.
9.Any Other Business: None
10.Date of next Meeting:- 3rd April 2017 7pm The Surgery Ropewalk