PRG Meeting, 7 July 2015 – 6pm, Bell House Medical Centre, Dunstable Road.

Patients present:, Maureen Matthews, Norma Brown, Veronica Gray, Liz Potter, Alison Colver, Tony Lewis, Jamuben Patel & Sandra Marcantonio.

Patients attending Virtually: John Green, Joseph Szilady, Diane Moles, Terence Moynihan, , Reshmin Haq, Jesmin Haq, Michael Beevor, Jahangir Ahmed, Syeda Abedin, Makeda Brown-Dako, Zaeem Parkar Henry Winsor & Ronald Byrne

Doctor, Staff & Visitors present: Dr Abubacker & Yvonne Quantrill (Practice Manager)

What has happened in last 3 months
Friends & Family: Very few responses in last quarter. It was suggested when we have A level students on work experience they could speak to patients as they are leaving the surgery to encourage them to complete survey.
Managed Repeats: Went live with this on 1 April 2015, majority of Luton practices are supporting this. Medicines management have informed us they are already seeing a reduction in medicines prescribed.
Dr Hoda practice closed: Our list size has increased to 9996. We are still above average for suggested appointments offered per patient registered. We will monitor this and get locum doctors in when we need extra help. Dr Choudhury is coming in 1 day a week throughout July and August to help cover holidays.
On line booking: Up and running and is getting used more, all routine pre bookable appointments available to book on line. We do have around 20 to 30 appointments released 2 working days in advance for those patients who need to be seen quicker, we advise patients to phone from 8am for these appointments as they are on first come basis. Veronica queried access to medical records, explained this is available but limited at present. Veronica thought she had ticked the box on the application to have access but reception had told her it we could not do this yet. Following meeting, checked and found the application form had not been forwarded to GP to agree access to medical records, this has now been done and will go through again with staff at Training session on 14 July 2015.
EDT (Electronic Prescribing): Looking to start this in September 2015. Prescriptions can be electronically sent to a chemist to save the patient coming to surgery to collect and take to the chemist.
Social prescribing: New services to be introduced to signpost patients to group when they may not need medication but could benefit by joining an activity group to suit their needs. will be Navigators employed to signpost patients, 2 practices piloting this service it will then be rolled out to other practices.
Luton CCG meeting: Feedback from patient representatives.
CCG Loss of Money: Diane wanted this discussed if there was anyone from the CCG present. No CCG members present to discuss and Diane unable to make this meeting to discuss further.
Lack of communication: Patient members complained about the lack of communication from CCG to the patient members of the group since Penny Fletcher left. Maureen said she had sat on an interview panel for the mental health and community services and has not had any feedback on outcome of interviews as to who has been given contract.
Other items discussed:
Paying for missed appointments & showing cost of medication on prescriptions: Discussed the news report of ideas to help prevent waste of NHS money.
DNA appointments: Sandra Marcantonio suggested changing the wording on our poster to thank patients for attending 90 to 93% of their appointments rather than focusing on the 7 to 10% who DNA. It was agreed to change this to see if it improved DNA rate.

Thank you to those giving up their time to attend the meeting. Anyone who has any other suggestion to add to agenda, please forward to Yvonne at any time. They will be held on file until the next meeting.

Meeting closed: 7.15pm Next Meeting 15 October – 12 Noon

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