The Castle Mead and Stoke Golding Action Group
Agenda – Tuesday 7th July 2015
Present: Trevor Allcoat; Bernard Arnold; Rodney Brown; Michael Cox; Alison Ellis; Anne Fullagar; Judith Montgomery; Brian Packer; Ray Pettitt; Pat Pirie; John Tansey; Karen Wareham
Apologies: Ray Dockrell; Pat Ley; Jennifer Michie; Kirsten Milner; Julia Patterson; Ann Swan;
1. Helen Cullinan – CCG Patient Experience & Quality Support Officer along with two colleagues, Sue and Amanda from the CCG were welcomed to the meeting by Alison. Helen described the consultation exercise which has been currently undertaken in and around Hinckley to determine the local development of health care provision. The design of Hinckley health service provision has been undertaken using experience led commissioning (ELC), which has included listening to patients and gaining insights into priorities including Hinckley District hospital which offers care to patients with long term conditions as well as palliative care, x-ray services, ultra sound scans and day surgery.
People were asked how they found their experience and how it could be improved. Hospital staff & GPs were also interviewed. They were invited to come together and get shared vision for community services in Hinckley. Among the main points emerging from the discussion were the following; free flowing care delivered closer to home, comprehensive and efficient and services working together, patients wanted respect and to feel that they came first.
There are many challenges within the health service. There are more people with long-term multiple illnesses. Public health bodies say there will be more people with depression and dementia by 2030. Better Care Together includes a 5 year strategy to transfer patients to community hospitals from the major acute hospitals.
· It is observed that many patients lose confidence when in hospital for a long time so local community hospitals could offer more flexible care aimed at getting them back home again.
· Many people would like comprehensive diagnostic care to be available nearby.
· There is a drive towards providing care in the home setting and educating patients in self care with long term conditions. There is a need to develop alternative community services and to improve the use of NHS buildings locally.
· There is a demand for rapid crisis response improvement and provision of a night sitting service so that patients would not necessarily need to be in hospital but all needs to be clinically safe and value for money.
· There is an emphasis on prevention and response to early warning signs, for patients to see their GP or consultant for early intervention and thus avoid costly hospital admission if possible.
· People would like to see services more joined up, to operate 7 days a week and closer to home.
· Hinckley Community Hospital to look after those transferred from other hospitals, to provide GP care and diagnostic services. At present health and social services not joined up resulting in people remaining too long in hospital when they should be returning home.
· Health care buildings must be fit for purpose and there should be a drive to reduce waste in the delivery of services. With a view to future planning it is important to give evidence why services should be stopped and explain the rationale behind it.
· In developing the strategic outline case, data is being examined to find out where people go for services at present. In the 3rd week in September, a long list of options will be drawn up to match priorities.
These will then be shortlisted to present to public in consultation. Better Care Together will then be presented as a 5 year strategy. Helen will send an invitation to the event in September.
2. Minutes of last meeting were accepted
3. Friends & Family Test results – the majority of respondents would recommend the GP Surgery to friends and family. Some reported problems related to the availability of appointments. Appointments with their chosen doctor are still difficult.
There was a request to stop selling sweets at reception in support of Great Ormond Street Hospital. This will be raised by Alison with the partners.
There was a strong comment on the NHS Choices website and this will be responded to on the website by Alison. Comments are made anonymously and GPs are not named.
4. Health Promotion – Notice Boards These have been updated monthly and thanks were given to Pat for her hard work.
5. PPG Awareness Week feedback indicated people very happy with the service. Generally comments were very positive although some people complained about the appointment system.
6. News letter The next edition has now gone out but unfortunately was not available on the website due to an error.
7. Bus Route to surgery Rodney Brown has been in correspondence with Arriva customer services in Luton to ask for a local bus to go down Hill Street. This request has now been forwarded to the Hinckley depot manager for comment. When they have a rescheduling meeting they will examine this problem. It was suggested that it was worth raising the problem with the Hinckley Times to raise awareness and increase pressure further for rescheduling meeting discussion.
8. Suggestions boxes
i. Stoke Golding – Bernard – A patient new to the practice, wonders why listed prescriptions are not added to repeat prescriptions. Alison will have a word with those in the dispensary.
ii. Castle Mead – Brian no suggestions in the box but he did discover two repeat prescriptions forms which were passed to the receptionists.
AOB
Urgent Care Practitioner has had a good response from patients he has seen.
Jennifer Michie put an article in the Stoker Magazine about participating in the PPG to raise awareness.
Michael Cox, following up an article in the May issue of the newsletter, attempted to obtain access to his medical records on line through the website. He found that the link on website did not work. He reported the difficulty but noticed that nothing had been changed on the website. His letter reporting the problem had not reached Alison. Alison will look on the website and see how it has to be updated to make it work better.
If things get into complaints box, it is thought that they should be forwarded ASAP to the correct person to deal with it.
There was a reported difficulty with availability of blood tests at Castle Mead. Our service is provided by George Eliot hospital and they only provide cover Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings, 4 hours three times a week. When appointments have gone, that is it, there are no more available. It is possible to go to the George Eliot for a test if necessary. The possibility of receptionists take on phlebotomist’s role was raised but there is a problem of space, there are no rooms available to carry out blood tests.
9. Next meeting: Tuesday September 1st 2015 Brian and Judith sent apologies in advance.
CASAG Agenda – 02.08.12