Minutes of the Newcastle-North Locality PPG

Minutes of the Newcastle-North Locality PPG

Held on Wednesday 16th April 2014:

1. PresentKevin Shenton (Chair) David Hardy (Sec) Geoff Williams, Ernest Green, David Scott.

Peter Hall, Nikki Critchlow (CSU Manager)

2. ApologiesColin Oakley, Julie Broad (Resigned)

Before the meeting began the Secretary informed the group that due to difficulty in gaining recognition in her practice (Dr Robinsons Kidsgrove) Julie Broad had resigned from the locality group effective immediately, the Secretary told the meeting that he had contacted Julie to try and avert the resignation but had failed to do so.

The Chairman commented on the work that Julie had achieved during her tenure with the group and hoped that the efforts of everybody concerned with forming PPG’s in our locality could be increased until every patient was represented.

The Chairman was pleased introduced Nikki Critchlow to the meeting, Nikki is the CSU manager of the patient engagement team.

3. Minutes from Previous: Read and passed as a true record:

4. Matters Arising from Previous Meeting:

(i) North Staffs Lung’s

Ernest Green asked the meeting if there had been any communication from the organisers of NS Lung’s following the request from the Talke practice to give a talk to their PPG, the Secretary informed the meeting that he has had no contact from NS lungs so could not give EG any more information.

(ii) Report on the current situation of the PPG’s in Newcastle-North Locality:

Heathcote Street Chesterton.

The Chairman opened the discussion by telling the group that along with the Secretary they had attended the first meeting of the Heathcote Street (Chesterton)PPG , both KS. DH. were pleased by the turnout and the undoubted enthusiasm shown by those who had attended, KS noted that it was clear to him that most of the reluctance shown by practice managers to form PPG’s was the misconception of what the role of the PPG is and once the parameters of the groups were clear the reluctance was not as prevalent.

The Chair invited David Scott to share with the meeting the situation now, following their first meeting.

DS went on to report that the second meeting held on the 4th April had been attended by 13 members and they had elected a Chairman,Secretary,Treasurer, as well confirming himself & Lilian Barker as Locality representatives, DS also said that the practice had appointed a member of their staff to act as liaison between the group and practice.

The meeting was pleased to hear that the group had already identified areas where they could help and had suggested to the practice that the Notice boards and the prescription box needed to be re-sighted

and the group were also allocated a notice board for their own information .

DS finished his report by saying that following the two meetings and the progress now being made both David and Lilian were optimistic about the future for their PPG.

Dr Rabbi & Dr Roberson Kidsgrove:

Geoff Williams who was representing Dr Rabbi’s practice told the meeting that despite all his efforts to have a productive meeting with the practice, he was facing the same reluctance as the Chesterton practice had been facing,

GW stated that he had spoken to the practice manager who had offered him a meeting room for 1 hour every so often but was still not getting the cooperation needed to form a meaningful group.

GW also said that as the two practices share the same building Dr Robinsons group would be facing the same problems (Hence the loss of Julie Broad as recorded at the beginning of this meeting) .

E.G suggested that it might be useful for the group to look at holding meetings outside the practice buildings and went on to say that the Kidsgrove fire station is used as meeting room for organisations that don’t have a building .

Nikki confirmed that it might be possible to use the fire station but there is a procedure to complete before this can happen, and she would look into this option and get back to GW.

Nikki also said she would contact both of the Kidagrove practices to ascertain the situation regarding the PPG groups and the perceived reluctance to assist in forming them, Nikki commented that the situation with both the Kidsgrove practises was confusing because GW was reporting a level of non-compliance but both Doctors practices are advertising on their web-sites for members for their PPG’s.

The situation with both Kidsgrove practises is on-going and both the Chairman and Secretary confirmed that if they could help by attending any meeting the Kidsgrove group called to assist with the forming of a group they would do so, in closing this section of the meeting GW commented on how he is reassured that a solution will be found and with Nikki’s help it would be possible to see movement sooner rather than later.

The Chairman thanked Nikki for her input during this discussion:

5 Questions for Congress

The Secretary informed the meeting that there had not been a Congress meeting since our last Locality meeting so he had not asked the questions from the last meeting but as he was attending the Congress next week he would bring these matters up or seek advice on them. The questions include

• update on the waste not want not campaign
• The age limits for the Shingles inoculations
• Concern over the concept of walk in centres

Ernest Green told the meeting of a proposal his PPG had put forward to their practice (Talke Pitts) which would attempt to cut waste when prescribing medication by changing the scripts from 28 to 14 days, EG said his Practice Manager would present this idea to the Doctors before making the decision on the viability of the plan as the change may encounter practical problems such as computer compatibility….. on going.

6. PPG Awareness week 2nd June/ 7th June 2014:

The Chairman / Secretary discussed with the meeting the efforts they planned to deliver for the NAPP patient panel awareness week at Audley and invited the other members of the meeting to do the same at the next meeting the Secretary went on to outline the plan for the Audley practice. Mon / Tue having a PPG table in the reception with information leaflets to be handed out, Wed morning taking the table out to the community centre for their coffee morning and finally attending a Mother Union meeting to give a short presentation about PPG’s

The Chairman told the meeting that if they needed any support from fellow location members to organise anything, to email the Secretary with details of assistance required.

7. Midsummer Mayhem

The Secretary informed the meeting that he had requested a table at this years Midsummer Mayhem event and had been allocated one by the organisers, DH said he now needs to purchase Public Liability insurance to cover the group at the event, DH. told the meeting that the table was to represent Newcastle-North Locality PPG.

DH went on to tell the meeting that he would like each practice within our locality to propose a health related theme so we could promote it on the day, DH also asked when the members have chosen their topic to contact him so he could begin to gather material for the event...Action DH & Members.

8.AOB:

(i) Non Emergency Number 111.

A number of the members wanted to know how the new non-emergency number was working and if the system had encountered any major problems since its re-launch, the Secretary said he would ask at the Congress and report back to the members..Action DH.

Meeting Closed

Next meeting to be held on 18th June 2014 Venue to be arranged.