Minutes of Church View Surgery PPG meeting held on 21st November 2014

Shoreham Health Centre

Present: Bernard Challen, Marjorie Sams, Michael Baker, Fiona Randall, Terri Jezeph, David Johnson, Hazel Randall , Dr Howard Bentley
Apologies: Rosemary Carter, Launa Rolf, Yvonne Ocana , Shelia Clark and Barry Downs.
Actions
1. / Bernard handed round a small notebook and pencil for everyone as a small gift.
Bernard thanked Marjorie for co-chairing the last meeting.
Amendment to last minutes: item 3 Nigel Pugsley was the representative from Parabas, the commercial agent representing the prospective builders and redevelopment in Southlands hospital.
Matters arising
Marjorie updated everyone on the re-development:
Graham Glenn is trying to get a programme member to undertake some option appraisal work for the scheme, which is required by the NHS, WSCC and the CCG ie: who builds, who funds and who owns the lease.
Marjorie is still liaising with Adur Medical Group PPG.
Yvonne and Terri were going to put something together to go on the PPG section of the website; this has not yet been done. Hazel said that if Yvonne wanted to send it to her she could liaise with Howard.
Shelia was going to put some plans together for a health promotion day. Shelia sent this update:
The PPG here at Church View Surgery though small in numbers is made up of very able people who have a keen interest in the future of GP practice in this country and a wish to be involved in the PPG, the link between practice and its patients.
I have been attending meetings for nearly a year and do feel the group still doesn’t have a clear objective. The main problem being that although there is a genuine feeling that a PPG should be visible and active, the members are all busy people and frequently have commitments elsewhere and are not able to attend the regular meetings or are able to commit to proposed actions.
The coffee morning might help move forward.
I was asked at the last meeting to look at the possibility of the group organising health awareness events.
‘I have tried without success to contact Northboune PPG to talk to them about their health event run at SSC last summer. I understand that Marjorie and Fiona have met with them and perhaps can cast some light on how this was organised and whether they propose another one in 2015.
I feel, for the reasons given at the top of this note that we are too small a group to even contemplate a large event but might consider helping to organise sessions for parents of young children and the older patients on health topics that are of concern to those particular groups.
For example:
Young Children
Infectious childhood illnesses and how to recognise them eg chicken pox and meningitis.
Other people
Type 2 diabetes – how to recognise it and learning to live with the condition. Would it be possible for these to be run by our practice nurses or by the specialist units within NHS.
Daytime might be appropriate for both these groups but also an evening session for those parents and concerned relatives who are working during the day.’
David commented that this was a helpful report. What is our sense of purpose/objective. We would need the input from the Doctors as to what health groups to target.
Bernard suggested we put this on the agenda for the next meeting. The PPG could only undertake something with the Doctors approval.
Howard wanted to thank everyone for coming along to the meetings, we all really appreciate it. The appointment system has changed since the 1st September. We have introduced the Duty Doctor all day; they triage patients over the phone and offer them an appointment on the same day if it is needed. This has helped with the increase in demand; however it has pushed out waiting times for routine appointments.
There have been a number of complaints from patients over the new system. Up until now we have provided a service over and above other practices, but this was not finically sustainable. There has been an increase in demand over the last 18 months. As a PPG what do you think we can do to make the system better for the practice, all 5 Partners are flexible and adaptable.
I have spoken to other GP colleagues and all their appointments on Mondays are book on the days, we could adapt our system to this.
It was suggested that this system should remain in place for a few more months as more changes may confuse patients even more.
David told the group that he attended a school meeting and he said that same thing there; how does whatever system is put in place improve the patient service.
Bernard said that patients need good communication and understanding have we made this clear enough to the patients.
Michael said that on the website it states that we are accepting new patients, why are we advertising this if the Doctors are too stretched.
Howard said that we may have to advertise this. We will need to check on this.
Michael also asked if there was any central feedback system to show which surgeries have the best appointment systems.
Howard said there wasn’t and that there isn’t a best appointment system. We generally discuss with colleagues what their appointment systems are.
Howard said that the way we run the practice worked well, lower demand, paid significant amount to locums to fill the gaps, for about 18 years we ran a lifestyle practice. Due the higher demand over the last 18 months-2 years, not just patients but other workload, profits have gone down, the Partners could be earning more as Locums. We had to change the system, where possible we do not use Locum Doctors. We still want to deliver good care.
Bernard summarised stating that the Practice needs to communicate with the patients and publish the changes to help patients understand.
ACTION: This to be put on as an agenda item for the next meeting
MSK
Howard gave a short talk about the developments with MSK. He has drafted a letter (which they may or may not put in the newspapers). He has liaised with colleagues from the CCE regarding this letter. He read the letter to the group, but it is not ready for the public yet so will not be published in these minutes.
The group asked if the letter could be published onto our website.
Howard said once the letter is finalised then It should be able to be published onto the website.
Bernard said that he felt reassured by the update.
David says he feels that the GPs are ‘private’ and are giving the contract to another private sector. Many feel it is more convenient to do this through a large service. Would like to see the NHS do this rather than private.
Marjorie added that once you go private there is no going back. She spoke with a physio at Southlands and they only have contracts until 2015, they think Bupa may bring in their own staff.
Howard confirmed that it is not private, they are NHS contracts. Some members from Central Surry Health Care came to the CCG locality meeting and they were very impressive. They focus on the patients and their employees. Jo Pritchard who attended was appalled to hear that the waiting time for chronic pain management was over a year.
Michael added that the patients who rely on MSK service are concerned if it will benefit them in the future.
Bernard said that he wanted to send a thank you to one of the consultants at Western Sussex Hospital but was very hard to find anything on the website, it was easy to find where to make a complaint.
Terri asked how are the PPG going to access the Patients.
It was discussed and was decided to trial an email address for the patients to write into. This to be added to the PPG section of the website.
ACTION: Hazel to contact Sussex HIS to get a new email address set up. / HR
2. / Friends and Family Test
Hazel handed out an example questionnaire. The Friends and Family test will be coming into effect in GP surgeries from 1st December. There will be a questionnaire on the website and there will be paper copies in reception. We have to ask the standard question – ‘How likely are you to recommend our GP Practice to friends and family if they needed similar care or treatment?’ The results need to be sent to NHS England on a monthly basis and the results are published on NHS England website, NHS Choices and in the surgery and on our website.
3. / Newsletter
Fiona gave Hazel and article on healthwatch, she will liaise with Howard and once finalised this will be sent to Yvonne for the newsletter.
4. / Coffee morning
Terri confirmed that a Health Advisor will be coming and will set up some scales in the corner. We will need nibbles and snacks on the day. We will be selling items for 50p. So far we have mince pies, cakes, chocolate eclairs.
There are quite a lot of raffle prizes which include tins of chocolate, tins of biscuits, 3 bottles of wine and box of chocolates.
Terri will be in the surgery selling raffles tickets next Wednesday, are there any other volunteers that could sit in the surgery for a morning to sell raffles tickets.
5. / Feedback from meeting attended by Marjorie and Fiona
We attended the PPG networking event held at Field Place on 2nd October. These are some bullet points from the meeting:
·  Introductions. How do CCG engage with the public
·  How can PPG influence local healthcare
·  Positive stories from Henfield and the Witterings followed by open floor stories
·  Healthwatch
·  Lunch, during which time we were asked to network with other groups.
·  The topic was How to remove barriers between PPG and CCG. One speaker was elected from each table of 5 or 6 to speak on their behalf. Our table decided to adopt the theme of ‘better communication to break down these barriers’. We won 1st prize which was a first aid kit for each of us.
·  Newsletters from other PPGS for you to see. The newsletters from Henfield and Steyning were handed out. Some PPGs have 100 volunteers to help with events. Others used advertising to pay for their newsletter.
·  All PPG newsletters were produced as a written document in the surgeries and on their websites.
Concerned raised at the meeting:
·  Services from hospital to home
·  Planned care in place before discharge from hospital
·  Proactive care, is there enough staff to achieve this.
·  Community and primary care, district nurses, other services eg hearing, dental, pharmacy, health improvement, prevention of falls, maternity, child care, adult social care.
·  Patients to be engaged in each part of the cycle of specific care decided by CCG.
Fiona said that Steyning and Henfield PPG’s have been running for over 15 years now. They also hold medical meetings for their patients.
David comments that the PPG could advertise itself by putting something in Beach news etc?
Bernard asked if we have enough avenues for patients to raise their views.
ACTION: To look into getting a comments/suggestion box
6 / Patient Experience
Marjorie gave the following comments from patients:
·  Patient Access for repeat prescriptions taking 2-3 weeks to process.
This must have been a one off as the turnaround time for prescriptions should be 48 hours.
·  Great concern that we have no step down beds in Adur, Patients have to go to Bognor to convalescence or pay £750-£1000 per week in this area.
·  Patients concerned about the high level of stress their doctors are under and wonder if the CCG really works.
·  Some GPs in other Practices in Adur are against what the CCG decides, on the actions taken regarding the NHS in this area.
7 / AOB
There was a discussion regarding the phrasing the receptionists use when they pick up the phone. Fiona mentioned that she called for an appointment but was not offered an appointment with the Duty Doctor until she really prompted it. She was unsure what the new system was and didn’t really understand how it worked.
ACTION: Phrasing to be discussed at Doctors/Practice meeting
Date of Next Meeting:
Friday 16th January 2014 at 12:30pm in Shoreham Health Centre

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