Friends@DNA
Minutes of the meeting of the Patients Participation Group at Dr Azim & Partners
4th May 2016 at 6 pm at the Surgery, 67 Elliot Road, NW4 3EB
Present: Ralph Hart, Anwar Islam; Molly Savage; Gabriel Shaw; Judy Shepherd (Minutes); Janice Tausig (Chair);June Wilson;Prof. AJ. Zuckerman.
In attendance:Maureen Dryer (throughout)and SabreenHanif (from 6:20 pm), Dr Bozok and Dr Aimal (towards the end).
Apologies: Marguerite Brodtman; Ulla Chisholm
Declaration of conflicts of interest: As last month
Minutes from Last meeting:Approved with no amendments
Matters arising:
a)Tom Nathan’s enquiry into Boots
Judy said Tom Nathan is looking into the question of Boots and prescriptionsbut there has been no written response again from Boots.Action: Judy to investigate further for the next meeting.
b)Welcome pack & written responses to non email patients –update
Welcome packs are still in the process of being assembled. The Practice is awaiting further ante natal referral forms from the hospital. They should be finished by the end of next week ready for PPG to proof read. When read,Sabreen will ask PPG for help to stuff envelopes using 2 or 3 people at a time. The packs will be for Raleigh Close patients and other new patients. About 150/200 packs will be needed. Professor Zuckerman commended Sabreen for the Welcome Packs which are excellent. Action: Sabreen to send Janice a copy of all informationin pack for proof reading.Sabreen to inform Janice when envelopes need stuffing.
c)Maureen’s use of Terms of Reference (ToRs) – update
It was agreed that not all the ToRs needed to be handed to patients. Maureen suggested relevant points e.g. PPG can play a role in practice – communicating change to the community – safety valve for patients and listening to grumbles. Gabriel added that it was a guide for co-operation from the group. The focus is to keep it simple.Action: Janice to use Maureen’s suggestions and meet with Gabriel and Judy to bring new version to the next meeting.
The heading on the ToRs list needed to include “and Partners”.Action: Janice to alter.
d)Progress with appointments leaflet & appointment situation- update.
The appointments leaflet had been returned to the Practice but Sabreen had not received any response from the Doctors. Action: Sabreen to speak with Dr Azim to see whether the PPG’s suggestions are useful and then include this leaflet in the patient’s welcome pack.
Professor Zuckerman was very concerned about patient confidentiality when having to give reasons for wanting anappointment – the receptionists are not medical professionals and don’t need to know the reason for an appointment as doctors can deal with anything. This is breaking confidentiality by which doctors are bound.
Reference was made to the last Minutes stating that patients not obliged to give details. The patient is placed in a particularly difficult situation when being asked reasons for an appointment at reception where there is clearly no privacy.
Prof. Zuckerman requested Doctors to read relevant articles regarding confidentiality.i.e. 2009 GMC Confidentiality; 2013 Good Medical Guidance –sections 13,25,27.
A further request from the PPG was that a notice be placed clearly at reception re confidentiality.Action: Sabreen to speak with doctors regarding the GMC articles and a confidentiality notice in reception.
More appointments are being released during the day. They are usually needed in the morning.” Walk in” is to start earlier in that patients will not necessarily be asked to wait until 10amor after to see the Doctor if they turn up for a “walk in” first thing in the morning.
Gabriel said no emergency appointments were available on the website. Is it functional? The question of who was responsible for website updates also arose. Ultimately Sabreen is responsible but Raphael would be taking the lead initially here.Action: Sabreen/Rafaella to investigate any difficulties with appointments on website.
Janice reinforced the difficulty in making appointments in under a month – she had received complaints regarding this.
e)Appointment of new staff - update
Maureen said the Practice was still short of staff, pay scales were not good; it was a stressful job. Essentially the Practice is no further forward.Sabreen is advertising on the NHS website.
f)Annual Survey –update
Sabreen said she had not checked to see if the Annual Survey questions needed to be modifiedbut said she would check this ready for the next PPG meeting. She was unsure whether the Survey had been completed for 15/16– Indre was meant to have done this before leaving. Action: Sabreen to checkwhether the Survey went in; whether it was one of the enhanced schemes for which Practices were paid extra or whether it was now part of their core contract. If submitted, Sabreen to share the results.
g)Website - update
Janice congratulated Sabreen on the homepage moving pictures which were modern and had been changed since the last meeting. In the scenarios most of the people were white Anglo Saxon and Janice felt this did not reflect the very diverse population of the Practice. Sabreen felt Rafaelawould be able to deal with this issue by the next meeting. She had not yet had time to bring the website fully up to date.Action: Rafaela to look at ways in which the moving picture scenarios might be more reflective of the current patient population and to update any areas in the website which needed attention including grammar and spellings.
h)PPG Liaison - update
Ulla had attended both meetings in the Practice but not everyone who had said they could attend had done so. Ralph had found the experience frustrating as the majority of people he spoke to during the two hours were unable to speak English. Janice acknowledged this was an issue which needed further discussion. Action: Janice to meet with Dr Azim or Sabreen.
Some people were interested and these are now on an updated list. It was decided to maintain a PPG presence during surgery once a week for now as so few patients had heard of the PPG.Action: Janice Judy Gabriel to draw up a rota.
i)New members (Ulla)
This item was deferred as Ulla was away. Action: to be updated at the next meeting.
j)Car parking : white lines and disabled bays
White lines in the car park are so faint in places cars are taking up two parking spaces. Janice asked if the contract with the landlords included maintenance and if so did this cover the car park? Was it also the case that the Hendon Way surgery needed to be consulted? Initially this appeared to be down to Mike Fraser (landlord) but the exact position was unclear.Action: Sabreen to consult either the contract or Mike.
k)Torrington Park information board (Janice)
Janice apologised for not having had the time to investigate the board. Gabriel offered to take her.Action: Janice and Gabriel to sort this by the next meeting.
l)Telephone lines (Practice)
New phone system will be operational from 17th May – one advantage will say where patient is in the queue. The new provider for this service is already being used by other Practices who find it useful. NB:All phone calls will now be recorded.No other change is planned in number or usage. Other extra features with the system will be put into place at a later date.
Phone lines were down this morning but are now OK. When the new phone system is put in, it should be a seamless operation without causing patients problems.
Agenda Items:
- Patient Education 2016/17 focus – clarification– what can we achieve?
Both Maureen and Marguerite had suggested inviting speakers for patient education. The idea had been welcomed but certain issues needed further discussion.
- language is already an issue in establishing a PPG. How would this be overcome in educating people? Action Janice to meet with Gabriel and Judy initially
- A room to hold the meetings currently seems difficult although the large waiting room area in the Hendon Way practice was suggested as a possibility.Maybe both Practices could work on this together and have a shared audience.Action:Dr Bozok to speak with Hendon Way.
- Timing was also an issue but if the Hendon Way waiting room was to be used then an evening talk could be arranged as surgery tended to finish around 5 to 5:30 PM
- Anwar said there were more important things to sort out at the Practice – appointments, phone system etc.
- The challenge of getting people engaged and making the effort to attend the meetings. The comparison was made with the number of walks the PPG had organized yet it was only a few of the same PPG members who attended. This was despite some promotion from GPs and raised the question of how both GPs and PPGs could work together to support people to improve their health.
Positive suggestions were also given.
- Gabriel said that some patients have trouble managing their illness ie: diabetes/life style. Attending a talk where specialized information was given could engage patients to take more care of themselves and give them the confidence to do so.
- Anwar suggested a cardiac talk.
- June said Age Concern have a lot of information about clubs, gardening groups etc andthe PPG can point people in the right direction to support people with social and medical needs.
- Dr Bozok suggested raising awareness of mental health issues
- Janice had contacted Marguerite who had suggested talks on a dietician; Women’s Institute; asthma; dentists
Janice suggested that in order to fulfil patient education well, all patients should become part of the PPG.Gabriel suggested that all new people joining the Practice become associate members of the PPG automatically. Janice asked Sabreen her opinion.Action: Sabreen and Janiceto discuss this further.
- PPG Week -6th-11th June
Members were reminded of the dates for PPG week. Janice suggested something special during surgery time. The following ideas were suggested: –
- maybe T shirts that could be reused annually with PPG week across the back could be worn –purple was suggested as the colour to blend in with receptionist uniformsAction:Dr Bozok to find out.
- the PPG could attend daily during this week to raise the level of people’s awareness with the possibility of Sunday.Action: Dr Bozok to email Janice whether or not the practice was open on Sunday during that week.
- A quick quiz could be designed to be used during this week with patients to find out what they knew about the PPG and what they would like the PPG to do in the coming year.Action: Janice to discuss with Gabriel and Judy
- Co-ordinator role
Marguerite had offered to find speakers for patient education and also to remind PPG volunteers through email when they were due to go to the surgery to speak to people about the PPG. This was much appreciated and definitely needed!Action: Marguerite tocontact Maureen to discuss Speaker arrangements and reflect on who to invite first.
AOB
- Janice informed people about the IPSOS Mori Pollwhich twice a year looks at every GP practice and comments on three things the Practice is good at and three where it needs to improve. The last survey completed in January and the link can be found here
This section is also useful for further information
Let me know if the link does not work.
Janice had not deled fully into how this information was collected and questioned a couple of the results. The link to this questionnaire is given for everyone to use as requested by Sabreen. Action: Janice to investigate more about the gathering of this information.
- The phone text message regarding injections for HIV, MMR etc was sent in error by a new staff member and was a very easy mistake to make;a similar error had been made with the PPG emails. Sabreen apologised on behalf of the member of staff and assured the PPG that this would not be repeated.
- Janice reminded everyone that next week was Dying Matters Week – it was very short notice but surprising that the Practice was unaware of it. The Practice asked for leafletsbut these had needed to be ordered a long time ago – the theme this year is conversations – it was suggested a clothesline with cards suggesting one thing patients would like to achieve before they died could be hung on the line. Action: Judy to ask at St. Luke’s Hospice for leaflets
- State of toilets: Cleaner is now coming early in the morning – if there is an incident of dangerous fluid spillage a senior member of staff will have to clear up- there is a list on the toilet door to note when the toilet has been inspected. Hendon Way Surgery has a different cleaner. They are responsible for themen’s’ toilet; Azim and Partners are responsible for the women’s.
- It was noted that theflu notices needed to be removed from the waiting room in order to increase their impact when they were returned later in the season.Action: Sabreen to talk with reception staff.
Next Meeting:Wednesday 8thJune 6pm at the Practice.