Minutes of the SLPC meeting – 9am – 3pm, Wednesday 22nd March at The Ramside Hotel, Durham.
Present
Umesh Patel (Chair)
Gillian Cucchi (Vice-Chair)
Mark Stephenson (Chief Officer)
Tim Dobbin (Treasurer)
Karen Ayton
Kathryn Brown
Mark Burdon
Andrea Dickinson
Cliff Gaines
Nigel Herdman
Mukarram Hussain
Sailesh Patel
Raminder Sihota
Barrie Tudberry
In attendance
Gemma Donnovan
Juliet Fletcher
Nicky Hall
Item 1 – Welcome
Umesh welcomed everyone to the meeting.
Item 2 - Sponsorship Presentation: Christie and Co.
The meeting was sponsored by Christie and Co. A short presentation was given by Karl Clezy surrounding the current market in buying and selling pharmacy premises in light of the funding cuts announced last year.
Item 3 - Apologies for absence
Apologies were received from Mark Burdon and Philippa Bell.
Item 4 - Declaration of Interest and Confidentiality
Mark S has received signed declaration of interest and confidentiality forms from all committee members apart from Umesh, Raminder and Sailesh.
Action point – declarations to be completed and given to Mark S at next meeting then uploaded onto SLPC website to conform with governance requirements.
Item 5 - Minutes of the last meeting – 18th January 2017
The committee agreed that minutes from the previous meeting were accurate with no amendments.
Action points still to be completed;
1. Invoices have still not been received from Jim Smith. Tim to follow this up again.
2. Admin assistant – Kathryn has spoken to her contact re: minute taking but they are unfortunately unavailable on Wednesdays. Karen agreed to speak to a previous HR employee who has recently accepted redundancy and so may be available in the interim period.
3. Pharmacy2U - Although Mark S has escalated SLPC concerns about Pharmacy2U with Alison Hopkins at GPhC he has yet to receive a response (Tim believes that Alison is currently on extended leave). Andrea reported to the committee a recent mail drop in the area and although it was recognised by all that this is not desirable Umesh reiterated that there is very little that SLPC can do to prevent this from happening. Gillian suggested engaging with local surgeries making them aware and vigilant of updated nominations that are from out of the area so that they can confirm with the patient where they want the prescription to go. Gillian also suggested the use of posters in pharmacies surrounding “keep it local”; Umesh asked Gillian to pursue this and to share with Mark S so that it can be published on the website. Umesh also requested that Kathryn liaise with surgeries during the EPS project to make staff fully aware of distance selling pharmacies.
4. Wear Recovery – Mark S sent a letter to NHS England and spoken to Ben Seale who is raising the matter with the commissioning team. Mark S has also spoken to the complaints officer at Hopewood Park; at present they are waiting for patient details from Cliff so that this query can progress. Mark S has relayed the concerns to Catherine Bailey during his meeting at MOGG; she is keen to gather evidence of any issues arising from lack of weekend cover. Andrea suggested sending out a message on pharmoutcomes to encourage contractors to report any issues to the LPC to help strengthen the evidence base.
5. PGD signatory – Mark S has made a number of attempts to find a signatory for the EHC PGD but has been unable to find anyone willing/able (partly due to indemnity requirements and also a perceived lack of trust with Public Health as they are currently operating under an expired PGD). This has been fed back to Ben Seale. At present the contracts are due to expire at the end of March although Ben has reassured Mark S that the tenders are imminent. Raminder expressed a concern that this appears to highlight a misunderstanding of what a PGD is; she suggested that the best way to progress is to find out contact details for the medical director for Public Health or alternatively advise them to pay someone to act as signatory and accept liability as they would be responsible for setting any training standards. Umesh suggested that Mark S contact Kathryn Featherstone as she is an IP and may be interested in accepting the role for a fee; failing that both Mark and Anita Burdon are IPs so may be interested parties. The committee agreed that the overall responsibility for sourcing a signatory belongs to the commissioner and not SLPC.
Item 6 - Matters arising not on the agenda
Mark S has received a query from a contractor regarding the publication of minutes on the SLPC website as this has not been actioned for some time. The committee agreed that all minutes should be published omitting any confidential sections which should be clearly marked at the end of each SLPC session. Andrea reported that the adopted governance for SLPC suggests having a members only section of the website meaning that edited minutes could be published in the public domain and full minutes be uploaded separately for future reference.
Action point – Andrea to restructure minutes to reflect confidentiality. Andrea to liaise with Kathryn Featherstone re: setting up members only section to website and uploading previous minutes to the website.
Nigel discussed concerns previously communicated with the committee regarding NUMSAS. He reported that pharmacies can access the NUMSAS referral through pharmoutcomes and accept without being able to view the details of the referral to assess whether it is appropriate; he has also been told that NHS 111 call handlers are not responsible for assessing the medication that is required. This has resulted in issues at several pharmacies where either a controlled drug is requested (leading to an inability to supply) or patients presenting at pharmacies with no proof of medication. It appears that the scheme is much more complex than first anticipated and there are concerns that pharmacy is becoming a ‘dumping ground’ for some issues. Gillian suggested a solution of adding a clause to the call handlers script to prompt patients to bring proof of medication to the pharmacy to aid with provision of NUMSAS. Kathryn suggested that these issues need to be escalated and that SLPC need to have a conversation with the NHS England lead for the NUMSAS pilot prior to a national roll out. Umesh suggested that Mark S join a group to help report NHS 111 issues, liaising with NPA and PSNC; he believes that contacting the lead in the Department of Health may also provide a good opportunity to apply pressure to resolve the issues.
Action point – Mark S to raises concerns with Helen Scott and complete a report to send to Ken Youngman (PSNC and local lead) for support.
Item 7 - LPC Officer reports
a. Chair’s report
Umesh reflected on the success of the Sue Sharpe presentation and expressed thanks to the University of Sunderland for hosting the event and catering for around 150 attendees. He was also pleased with the engagement with the recent NPA event held at the Barnes.
Umesh briefly discussed the Judicial Review which is currently underway. He reflected on the pressure facing the PSNC resulting from the judicial review and current process of moving offices. Umesh stressed that with Pharmacy Voice winding up business at the end of April that without PSNC pharmacy will face a number of struggles so it is essential for LPCs to offer support where needed. Umesh also detailed the large volume of information available on both the PSNC and NPA websites to aid contractors with quality payments; it was suggested that Mark S download this relevant information and share with contractors on both SLPC website and pharmoutcomes.
Umesh expressed his gratitude to Mark S for the progress he is making and excellent work achieved as Chief Officer. He informed the committee that Mark S had applied to the PSNC leadership academy and had been successful in gaining a place on the course beating a lot of competition.
Finally Umesh reflected on the poor quality of venues booked in the Rosedene and Barnes; he expressed a need for a higher quality venue for events to reflect the image that SLPC are aiming for. Gillian suggested using the Quality Hotel and Boldon as it has better accessibility. Mark S highlighted the benefit of utilising sponsors for each event to ensure the costs are kept to a minimum.
Action point – Mark S to gather costings for a number of venues and present to the committee.
b. Chief Officer’s report
A thorough work update was sent to the committee prior to the meeting (refer to enclosure 7b).
Mark S reports excellent support from Kathryn Featherstone in upkeeping the SLPC website and twitter feed; Andrea is also maintaining the facebook page and Raminder has volunteered to become additional admin on the page.
Mark S reflected on the great support from regional LPCs for the recent Sue Sharpe event and has received excellent feedback from all that attended. The recent NPA event (Monday 20th March) also received good feedback, engaging with approximately 30 attendees. Mark S felt that there were advantages in having the session delivery later than other LPCs as the NPA were able to provide more detailed explanations (especially following the DoH publication last week). Mark S asked for suggestions from contractors for further training events; feedback included HLP, face to face safeguarding, EHC training and provision of other services.
Action point – Umesh and Mark S to liaise with Cath McClelland to act as tutor for some sessions.
Raminder reported that the health and wellbeing board in Lincolnshire delivered a one hour evening session on safeguarding and provided all attendees with a certificate of completion; this could provide a good alternative to CPPE which is proving difficult to pass. Kathryn suggested that as a region all LPCs need to be smarter with contractors finances and work together on providing training rather than duplicating events in different areas. Mark S will raise this point at the next regional meeting but stressed the importance of developing a rolling programme in Sunderland to encourage contractors to get together.
Action point – Mark S to liaise with Greg Burke as he has already advertised safeguarding training to Durham contractors and we could team up with these efforts. This needs to be chased asap so that contractors are fully compliant before the end of April when the first quality payment is due.
Mark S notes an increase in contractor engagement with the LPC through email and telephone calls; these range from grievances to advice provision for the quality payments.
Mark S discussed three upcoming projects for which he will need the support of a committee member to drive forward and provide pharmacy expertise;
1. Care home waste audit – there have been poor reports surrounding one pharmacy and their management of orders/waste and the CCG have made it a priority to address this issue on a wider scale. Karen volunteered to support Mark S with the project highlighting a deeper problem in relation to EPS RDs for PRN medication which could be contributing to waste. Karen also suggested bringing a member of Boots staff who is employed as a full time care home pharmacist to aid the project.
Action point – Umesh to contact pharmacy involved directly. Andrea to forward care home waste management documents obtained from Rowlands care home team to Mark S and Karen to review.
2. Referral to Pharmacy Scheme – Gemma Donovan and Megan Blythe looking to implement pharmacy referral involving practice pharmacists. Tim is interested in joining the project (dependent on meeting dates) as he has good relationship with practice pharmacist in local surgery.
3. PNA steering group – Sheila Rundall and Catherine Bailey are looking to set up a monthly steering group engaging with the LPC early to provide an open consultation. Andrea to work with Mark S going forward.
Finally Mark S informed the committee that he had successfully completed a bid liaising with Greg Burke to receive £50 per contractor from NHS England to support training for quality payments. The money has not yet been received but Mark S is under the impression that the money will be supplied regionally then divided between each LPC.
c. Treasurer’s report
Tim reported a healthy balance of around £83000. The PSNC payment is scheduled for early April and honorariums are to be paid in April after the end of the financial year. In view of the nearing end of year Tim requested that all committee members submit their expenses in a timely manner.
Action points – Umesh to press Jim for expenses. Mark S to liaise with The Barnes re: £200 refund and forward receipt to Tim.
Item 8 - PSNC update – Mark Burdon
In Mark B’s absence Umesh provided a brief update on the judicial review.
Tim raised a current issue with AAH reintroducing the fuel surcharge and asked Mark S to raise this with PSNC. Umesh stated that he has already contacted AAH directly to contest the charge and was advised to speak to the area manager; he agreed to circulate the response to committee members and escalate to PSNC if required.