MINUTES OF MEETING

Meeting: Patient Forum Group
PRACTICE: Willington Medical Group / Date:
2nd September 2014 / Attendees:
Graham Sewell (Vice Chair)
Brian Myers
Julia Steele
Cherrie Hirst
Apologies:
David Craggs (Chair)
Dr Grant
Harold Benson
Frances Hall
Philippa Hammond
Roger Ward
Ian Hirst
Margaret Metcalf
Pat Greensmith
Julie Gray / Copies sent to:
Guests:
Minutes of Meeting 24th June 2013 / Agreed as a true record
1 / Matters Arising
DNA Figures
Carers Update
Confirming Attendance for Patient Forum Group Meetings
Durham Dales Patient Forum Group
Cross Section of Patients from Ethnic Minorities / There is a new function within the new clinical system to record and monitor DNA appointments. This should allow the figures to be extracted and reports to be generated much more efficiently. This is currently being looked into and more information will be available at the next meeting.
Continuing to send text message appointment reminders to all patients who have made an appointment and have a mobile phone number recorded.
Durham County Carers Support will attend the open flu clinics that have been arranged. During the flu season practice staff will raise awareness of the carers register and encourage unpaid carers to join the register. Carers Health Checks will also be available and offered to unpaid carers on the practice register during October.
Cherrie explained that it is still sometimes a struggle to contact members of the patient forum group to confirm attendance. It was previously agreed that sending a text message is another way of contacting members.
Due to the number of attendees at the today’s meeting and also the previous meetings it was agreed that we need to advertise and raise awareness of the patient forum group and push for other patients to join the group.
It has been agreed that Joseph Chandy and David Craggs will meet before the next patient forum group meeting to discuss representation on the Durham Dales patient forum group.
Joseph has agreed to attend our next patient forum group meeting.
David has agreed to attend the next Durham Dales patient forum group meeting on Friday.
Cherrie will look at this for the next meeting.
2 / Introductions / Introductions were given
3 / Healthwatch, Joanne Scott / Joanne introduced herself to the group. Copies of leaflets, the recent bulletin, application packs for volunteers and the annual report were distributed. Joanne explained that Healthwatch is based in Newton Aycliffe and is predominantly a signposting service as well as an advisory service to any health and social care related query that people may have.
Brian offered the Willington Community Action Centre as a venue if Healthwatch needed to hold a drop in session in the area.
4 / My NHS, Nicola Gardiner / Nicola explained to the group that MY NHS is essentially a membership scheme and gaging involvement from the public allowing them to give their views on future services that may be commissioned. There are approximately 400 members at the moment. Information leaflets and posters were distributed for information.
Nicola is happy to attend a future patient forum meeting to discuss this with the members who were unable to attend today.
5 / Durham Dales Patient Forum Group Update / Covered under Matters Arising
6 / Practice Update
·  Flu Campaign
·  Elephant Kiosk
·  Change to GP Sessions
·  Action Plan 2013/14
·  Zero Tolerance/Abusive Patients
·  Newsletter Article / Cherrie explained to the group that flu open days have been arranged for 22nd September 8am – 12noon and 1pm – 5pm and also Saturday 4th October 8am – 12noon. No appointment necessary. Open clinics will also be held on Thursday evenings from 5pm – 6.45pm also and bookable appointments can be made anytime but time has been specifically allocated between 4pm – 5.45pm each afternoon for flu vac appointments. All members of the nursing team including the HCAs can administer flu vacs. We will be trying to target patients who also need other reviews e.g. asthma reviews to have these done at the same time as having their flu vacs.
District Nurses will be vaccinating housebound patients against influenza along with any carers in the household. District Nurses will also be giving information packs out to the housebound patients.
Julia explained to the group that an Elephant Kiosk will be placed in the practice. The CCG have invested in these kiosks and they are aimed at collecting feedback from patients. This feedback will automatically be uploaded to NHS Choices website. Julia also showed the group an image of what one of the kiosks looked like and also asked for input from the group with regards to the location of the kiosk in the practice.
Julia informed the group that the following changes have been made to GP sessions:
Dr Grant has reduced session to 5 sessions per week
Dr Lunney has reduced sessions to 7 sessions per week
Dr Wilmer has recently joined the practice as a full time partner
Dr Grant is looking to reduce his patient list due to the reduction in the number of sessions he will be providing per week. His patient list will be looked at and patients will be contacted regarding changes to registered GP if required. Posters, leaflets and an article in the practice newsletter etc will also be displayed informing patients of these changes.
This was discussed and the following actions were outstanding:
·  Improve telephone access, Practice currently looking into this.#
·  Increase size of prescription box.
Other actions are ongoing.
One patient has recently had two zero tolerance letters raising concerns about their behaviour when in the practice and they have been invited to discuss this concern with Julia and Cherrie. There has been no response from the letter so far.
Other recent patient comments have included a patient complaining about the lack of room in the waiting area when a patient in a wheelchair was also in the waiting area. This was discussed with the patient and staff are aware to try and move chairs when necessary but there is limited room within the waiting area. Patient Forum suggested that patients who use wheelchairs could be asked to wait in the sub waiting area. Julia explained that in this specific instance the wheelchair was too big to fit into the sub waiting area.
Cherrie asked the group if they could provide an up to date newsletter article re the patient forum group.
7 / Willington Care Village Update / Not in attendance
8 / SLAM Update / Not in attendance.
9 / WCAC Update / Not in attendance.
10 / A.O.B.
Cree Organisation
Befriender Scheme / Julia explained to the group that there was an organisation called Cree working in the area to try and reduce the rate of young male suicide attempts.
Julia also explained to the group that publicity had recently been received of a Befriender Scheme for patients with learning difficulties. This will be publicised in the practice and offered to patients who attend for learning disability checks.
11 / Dates of Future Meetings / 2nd December 2014
12 / Date of Next Meeting / 2nd December 2014