Port View Surgery – Patient Participation Group –March 1st2016

Present:Jean Dent (chair), Judith McBrien (minutes), Peter Thistlethwaite, Lisa Dennis, Lyn Oliver, Gail Lee,Tony Mugridge, Geoff Mawson, Stephanie Rowe, Susan Bray, Dave Bamber, Christina Fox.

In attendance: Tina Seedhouse, Practice Manager

Apologies:Jane Wells, Roy Maddock. Apologies received post meeting: David Yates, Margaret Rawlings

  1. Changes to membership

Welcome to new members: Dave Bamber, Christina Fox and Roy Maddock.

  1. Notes of meeting held on Jan 12th 2016: approved
  1. Matters Arising: none
  1. Practice report - Tina
  2. Friends and Families test results for Feb were tabled. All satisfactory.
  3. Patient Survey: results for Jan 2016 were tabled. Waiting times are still an issue, particularly for one of the doctors. The message on appointment screen indicating length of wait does not seem to be working

Action: Tina.

4.3Demand for appointments is very high (one day last week there was standing room only in the waiting room). There is no money for more doctors or nurses. The list has to remain open to new patients. The expectations of patients are too high in some cases. DNAs are going up. No decision has been reached about sending out a warning type of letter after 3 DNAs. Ways of managing waiting times were discussed. See next item for more on this issue.

  1. National Patient Survey results - Tina
  2. Results were tabled. All were all good except for waiting times. This issue was discussed further. Some practices have put up a poster urging patients to write to their GP if dissatisfied with waiting times as the doctors have no control over it. It was agreed we should invite the local MP Sheryl Murray to meet with PPG to discuss the crisis in GP Practices, highlighting our experiences. This could be combined with Saltash HC PPG (see Item 8 below).
  1. Merger of health and social care in Cornwall – consultation
  2. Tina tabled list of events for consultation. Nearest is Liskeard (Eliot Hotel) Thursday March 17th 12-6 and Q&A 6.30-8pm
  3. Manchester and Cornwall are subject to a government initiative to get these mergers going, so Cornwall is in an interesting position.
  4. If people cannot go to Liskeard event, they can comment on line. Link previously sent round.
  1. Dementia Voice PL12 - Geoff
  2. Geoff gave background for benefit of new members. The Committee of 15 led brilliantly by the Minister Tim Parkman is very active.
  3. The Business Breakfast was a great success in Feb. Approx 26 business people attended of whom 19 signed up for awareness training. They will receive stickers for their windows once trained.
  4. The public launch is 21st April 1-5 pm. There will be speakers and information. To be held at the Library. Objective is to create a dementia friendly town.
  1. Request from Saltash HC PPG
  2. Jean had received request from chair of Saltash HC PPG Rose Edwards that we share some membership in order to collaborate. It was agreed it would be better to hold occasional joint meetings for both PPGs to discuss areas of common interest, e.g. Out of Hours. The first one should be with Sheryl Murray present to discuss the national and local crisis in GP practices. See also link to BMA report previously circulated.

Action: Lisa Dennis volunteered to link with Rose Edwards to set this up.

  1. Umbrella Group - Peter
  2. Peter attended a meeting in Jan where the new OOH service was discussed. He feels it is important that Port View has knowledge of how this is operating since the change of contract about 9 months ago. Tina said that all contact with OOHs is reported to Practice and filed in patients’ notes, but not analysed. It would be simple to count the frequency of use of OOHs but very time consuming to look at outcomes. It might be possible for a nursing student on placement to do this, if the Practice took up that option.

Action: Tina

9.2Peter attended a meeting on children’s mental health presented by Dr Woodgate consultant child psychiatrist and his team. The main point emphasised was that they had to concentrate on those patients with the most serious conditions and circumstances. This meant referring the rest to other types of service.Peter felt well briefed by Tina to participate but did not feel those presenting listened very well. Despite the very poor service provided by CAMHS, the service had received an ‘outstanding’ rating by CQC recently.

  1. Any Other Business
  2. Judith asked for a volunteer to take over role of secretary from her.
  3. Lisa reported on her attendance at a course for developing patients as leaders. It

had been very interesting and stimulating. It was part one of three.

8.0 Date of Next Meeting

TUESDAY May 10th2016 at 5.30 pm