THE MEDICAL GROUP

A Meeting of The Medical Group Patient Participation Group held in

OnTuesday 27th June2017atLangley Park Surgery

Present / PR, EH, KC, MC, DT, KMc, JK, JMc, LN, Lesley Hunter & Deborah Wilkinson
Apologies / BJ, TT, JL, BL, CL & FP
Minutes: / Deborah Wilkinson
Complaint / Lesley explained she has received a complaint regarding online access. When a family requested to register for the service they were told that once activated they would need to come back to the Practice to collect their passwords as per Practice policy. 2 family members came to collect their passwords and said that the third member would collect his later due to work commitments. Unfortunately this password ended up being posted out in error. This was posted to the correct address and there was no breach in confidentiality. The password was changed as a precaution however hisone family member is complaining because of the potential breach of confidentiality if the letter had gone to the wrong address. The incident has been investigated and Lesley has reported via SIRMS. A duty of candour letter has been sent to the family to apologise and explain that action has been taken to prevent the incident from occurring again. The PRG are happy that procedure was followed. It was suggested by KC that Lesley invites the patient in to discuss the matter further should they wish to do so.
Practice Variation / Lesley explained that the practice variation shows how The Medical Groups compares with other Practices in the area and the CCG average on referrals and admissions etc. The figures come from RAIDAR however these are unreliable so we are currently looking into our own figures by running reports in our own clinical system - SystmOne. The Practice will be looking at orthopaedic, respiratory and cardiology referrals by asking our secretaries to keep a tally of which GPs are referring to these services to see if there are any patterns. The Practice will discuss practice variation regularly at meetings and feedback to the CCG bi-monthly.
Appointment Campaign / The Practice will be holding an appointment campaign because we are receiving a number of complaints and a rise in abuse of the appointment system. We will print cards to give out to every patient who visits the Practice explaining how our appointment system works and the different types of appointments available. We will also promote our appointments in the surgery, on the website, patient newsletter and on the TVs in waiting areas. Lesley explained that we only have a certain amount of appointments each day and that we are trying to encourage patients to book appointments in advance. We would never turn any patients away but if they wish to be seen as an emergency they will need to come and sit and wait and they may not be able to see their GP of choice. PR suggested they repeat the exercise they did in the past that staff should not be harassed. KC suggested that the PRG start their notice in a sympathetic way “we understand some patients are stressed/worried because of their illness but…” Lesley explained that staff are trained in dealing with difficult patients but agreed that we all need to support staff with this.
Feedback from other meetings / NDPRG
JMc informed the PRG that Bridge End Surgery have stopped providing travel vaccines, Lesley explained that The Medical Group stopped providing private travel vaccines a while ago because of the cost of these vaccines and because our nurses carried out so few that they could not keep up on the skills required to provide the service safely. We do still give NHS travel vaccines i.e. Hepatitis A, Typhoid and Cholera but if patients require any other travel vaccines they are advised to attend a Travel Clinic. Superdrug at the Arnison Centre and Bowburn Chemist provide a private travel vaccination service.
JMc also enquired about the Federation PRG and Lesley explained that this had been put on hold because of PURDA however explained that this would be very informal to begin with.
The Stroke Assessment Service was discussed, this is a voluntary service however funding is being withdrawn and will be invested to provide a different kind of Stroke Service. JMc informed the PRG that the new service felt like a downgrading of the original service and the NDPRG raised their concerns. The PRG will ask BJ for an update on this at the next meeting.
PPCE
A talk was given by Edmund Lovell from the Better Health Programme & Sustainability Programme. Formal consultation about maternity services is due to start in July for the North. Maternity services in the South are under review and PR explained that there will only be three hospitals providing maternity services in this area. James Cook will be a specialist hospital and another will hold consultant led maternity services, it was mentioned that one other will hold some sort of maternity service but it has not been confirmed that Darlington Memorial will be one of these.
Any other business / Patient Issues
The CCG would like PRG’s to go back to them with more patient issues and how these affect patients, not the Practice. Lesley said she will ask staff to feedback any issues they may hear.
Patient Congress
PR said that David Smart discussed Extended Access in Primary Care and that they had decided on the centres in Durham, Chester-le-Street and Derwentside which will be open 6.30-8pm Monday-Friday and 9-1 on Saturday and Sunday and bank holidays. Lesley said that as far as she was aware the centre had not been decided for Durham and the federation did not put a bid in for those hours. The federation will not find out if their bid has been successful until July.
Patient Engagement Scheme
PR & BJ gave a presentation based on our Practice and received very good feedback.

There being no other businessThe Meeting closed at 19:15

The next meeting is on 21st August 2017 at Ushaw Moor Surgery 6pm

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