Minutes of The Smithy Surgery PPG Meeting
25th February 2016 5.30pm @The Smithy Surgery
Attendees: Kay Phillips, Mary Jessop, Sharon Battersby , Mai Spencer, Mary Fitton, Sharon France,
David Collins
Apologies: Pat Castle, Jan Wright, Jeff Barlow, Pat Ralls
Annual General Meeting
The meeting was quorate (5+ members of the PPG in attendance)
Mai announced that Barrie had made a decision to leave the PPG. Mai had written to Barrie to thank him for his contribution over the last 3 years. He would still like to receive information about the PPG and would like to attend any meetings with speakers.
Chairperson’s Report
This was agreed
Action: Mai will send the report by email to Alan Dow, Tracy Turley and Celia Poole
Accounts
Mary J reported that out of the £100 given to the PPG by the surgery, the first expenditure claimed had been in 2015. A total of £24.95. No further funds are needed at present. Mary J will continue to be keeper of the PPG purse.
Election of Chair and Secretary
Mai noted the dual role of the Chair: facilitating meetings and driving forward ideas and responses.
After a 3 year tenure of the post as per The Smithy PPG constitution, Mai is retiring from the Chair.
No nominations for Chair have been forthcoming.
Ø After discussion, it was agreed that Mary J and David would “job share” the post of Chair, although both have commitments that may prevent their attendance. Sharon B also agreed to stand in as Chair if necessary. David and Mary J will let the secretary know in advance whether they are attending a meeting.
Ø Mary J will take on the monthly responsibility of chasing up actions and compiling the Bulletin of completed and outstanding actions and will forward to the secretary for distribution.
Ø Mai will pass on the receipt of Healthwatch and NAPP information to Mary F.
v Mary F agreed to continue as secretary for the next year, year 3 in the post.
v Mary J volunteered to act as secretary if necessary
Other roles and responsibilities
· Newsletter - Pat and Jeff to be asked if they will take this on. If not, then the Newsletter will lapse for the time being.
There is feeling among PPG members that the noticeboards serve almost the same purpose as a Newsletter and that a noticeboard could be redesigned to include news. The newsletter is posted on The Smithy website but news content can be posted on the website.
· Speakers - David is happy to continue to organise speakers.
· Outside Activity reps. – Sharon B will continue to attend the CCG meetings when possible and to write her one page summary of the proceddings.
Mai and Sharon B will continue to attend the Glossop Patient Locality Group
Marys F & J will continue to attend the Hyde, Hollingworth and Longdendale Patient Locality Group
· Noticeboards
o PPG board - Pat and Jeff to continue to take responsibility for this
o Information or Topic board - Mary F has done this in the past and is happy to continue /have someone else help/ do it as per topic decided
o Campaign Board – Mary J has done this in the past and is happy to continue /have someone else help/ do it as per topic decided
o Glass fronted board – Leave as it is at present – self referral information
· Practice Website
Mary F updates the PPG area of the website on a monthly basis. These website pages could be improved and she asked for help with this.
Action: Mary J and Sharon B will help. Mary F to arrange a meeting date
Mai and Mary F were thanked for their hard work over the past years.
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1. Minutes of the January Meeting
Mai noted that she has retired rather than resigned from the post of chair. Minutes accepted
2. Matters Arising
Kay confirmed that The Smithy will be part of the Hyde/Hollingworth/Longedendale Local Community Care Team
A definitive decision on private reports fees has not been reached.
Action: Sharon F to talk to GPs about this and bring a welcome pack to the March meeting
3. Standing Items
GP and Practice Update
Kay noted that demand for appointments has been exceptionally busy over the last few weeks. One morning there were 30+ triage telephone calls to deal with after seeing patients in surgery.
A new GP will start, hopefully on May 16th, doing 5 sessions a week. This will create one more GP session a week in total.
Kay explained that there is a shortage of GPs and Nurse Practitioners across T&G.
There was discussion about the applicability of triage nurses and counsellors/CBT practitioners being employed in the practice. There was discussion about patients using the generic practice email address to
contact the GPs/Nurses for medical advice.
Mai wondered whether Joanne Bircher had contacts with the medical school re researchers who may be interested in looking at appointment and triage solutions to GP access.
4. Future Planning
a. Dementia Friends Training – see f. Speakers
b. Asthma Case follow up – because of recent events concerning this, this item should be deferred
c. PPG Membership – David noted that bringing in new people should be a priority plan
Action: David and Mai will meet to draw up ideas to attract new members. Agenda for March
d. Patient Survey – scheduled for May .
Action: Compare the latest NHS England surveys
e. Noticeboards: Ideas from minutes of previous meetings are CQC Report; Sugar; What the PPG has done and is doing; Asthma awareness
Action: Agenda for March meeting
f. Speakers – Agreed that there should be 3, possibly 4, per annum. Ideas were April - Sanctuary; Aug – Diabetes; Nov – Asthma
Action: Mary F to let David have details for Sanctuary
David to start organising speakers.
There has been a recent channel 4 programme (Dispatches) which demonstrated how pollution
affects Asthma. It was suggested that David might be able to show the recording he made of the programme.
There was discussion about whether a GP could hold an information session.
Action: Sharon F to ask GPs
More events for all patients might attract membership to the PPG. Events can be publicised through text messaging, the website, prescription messaging, posters. A target audience should be defined
Dementia Friends Awareness Training is another possibility
Action: Mary F to contact the Thornley House patient who can deliver this for more information
g. PCQS – Mary F has compiled a list of generic sources of information and asked others to read and bring suggestions
Action: Agenda for March meeting
h. Suggestion box – Mary J has set this up.
Action: Agreed that suggestions will be reported on every meeting as a standing item
i. Local Community Care teams – progress
Action: Agenda for May or June
j. Patient Record Online Access . This is available from 1st March. In the first instance it is open as a pilot project to PPG members who regularly attend PPG meetings.
Kay noted that letters will not be available to begin with as they are stored on a separate server to the rest of the patient record
Action: Agenda feedback for March meeting
Mary F will try to obtain Dr. Hannan’s paper to the CCG on areas of concern about online access
5. AOB
At the Glossop Locality Group, Lambgates noted that they plan to do a project with local secondary schools about why young people don’t readily access the GP surgery. This project was discussed. Mai would be willing to help with a similar study re The Smithy
Action: Mai to ask more questions about this Lambgates study eg why do they need to do this and how are they going to go about it.
The Glossop Locality meeting, also wondered whether The Smithy PPG would be willing to circulate their minutes to the locality group. This was discussed. The minutes are publicly available on the website
Action: Sharon F to ask the GPs
Mimi’s café and foodbank referrals were also discussed
Next Meeting Thursday March 31st 5.30pm @ The Smithy Surgery