CRICKETFIELD SURGERY PATIENT PARTICIPATION GROUP

Minutes of a meeting held on 21st November 2017

1. Present: Kate Daulton (Chair), Pam Adair, Gordon Aspland, John Calderwood, Brenda Fairgrieve, Tracy Green, Annie Hall, Clyde Mills, Dr Emma Palmer, and David Solomon.

2. Apologies for Absence were received from: Sue Bayley, Jan Cooper and Mike Henderson.

3. Distribution of Minutes. Kate apologised for showing members' email addresses on email circulations. She will use bcc to conceal them in future.

4. Gordon Aspland. Thanks to Gordon for chairing the group over the last two years or so were recorded.

5. Future of the PPG. There was a discussion on the purpose and future activities of the PPG. Points made included:

The Group should act as a voice for the patients; it can challenge the surgery based on patient experiences.

Many people are not aware of the PPG and its voluntary membership.

There is a need to raise the profile of the Group.

It was suggested that information about the Group could be shown on the screens in the surgery.

There is a need to improve communication between the Group, the surgery and the patients.

The Group might host information-giving events on a wide range of health-related topics. It is suggested that a suitable programme be worked out based on quarterly sessions.

6. National Association of Patient Participation. The question was raised as to whether the Group should be affiliated to the NAPP. The Group may come back to this question at a future meeting.

7. Communication with Patients. There is a need to find better ways of communicating with patients and a question is to be raised at the Locality PPG forum about how other PPGs achieve this.

8. Wellbeing Workforce Co-design Workshops. A workshop is planned for Wednesday 29th November at the Courtenay Centre from 7 to 9:30 p.m. Those interested should phone 01803 652475 or email callum.king1@nhs.net . Clyde and Kate expressed interest in attending.

9. Surgery Telephone System. There have been improvements including a new recorded outgoing message. However, there have been initial problems that are being followed up.

10. Staff Changes. Dr Stubbs is on sick leave and Dr Hanley is covering her absence. Dr Bell (previously Brown) is back from maternity leave. Three new administrative staff have been appointed. Members were reminded that they may be represented on selection panels for such staff.

11. Citizen's Advice Bureau Problem. It was reported that CAB has difficulty getting relevant heath information for claimants who appeal against refusal of benefit. It was explained that an appeal panel can ask a GP practice for information and that the DHS will pay for such reports, but often, this is not done. It does not help that the benefit claim form asks questions such as 'can you bend down?' or 'can you walk 100 yards?'. While an individual may be physically able to do these things, there are no questions about mental capacity. So, claimants who are not mentally able to fulfil the requirements of employment may be denied the benefit they really need and often turn to their GP for help because of the stress of living with an inadequate income.

12. PPG Forum. Minutes of the last meeting have yet to be circulated. There is a suggestion of widening the forum. Kate undertook to go to the next meeting.

13. Christmas arrangements. The surgery will be closed for the public holidays. For the remainder of Christmas week, no pre-booked appointments will be available.

14. Flu Vaccination. 48% of eligible adults and 44% of 2 and 3 year olds have been vaccinated this year. More vaccinations are available either from 2 to 4 p.m. on any weekday or by appointment. Parents of children aged 2 or 3 who have not received the vaccine are being contacted by telephone.

15. Patient Feedback. During October the iPad used to seek responses to the friends and family question showed that 80% of respondents would recommend the practice, with 9% saying they were unlikely to recommend it.

16. Telephone Answering. Statistics for the previous day were passed round. These show very short waiting times for calls to be answered. Staffing numbers for telephone answering are now set for each half hour based on the number of calls that can be expected.

17. On Line Prescription Request. There is a facility on the on-line system to make a special request, e.g. to request an item that is not on the current regular prescription list although it has been prescribed for that patient in the past. Using that facility gives the patient no feedback as to whether to prescription is being issued or if some other action is required. The Doctors will look at this.

18. Next Meeting Agenda. Items suggested for the next agenda were:

Patients not seeing the same Doctor.

Notice boards.

Support groups - any ideas on these we should support.

GP stress.

19 Future Meeting Dates: 23rd January 2018 and 20th March 2018.