Whyteleafe Surgery Patients’ Forum
Wednesday 8 October 2014 at 7pm
Minutes of the Meeting
Present: Theresa Archibald Practice Manager
Susan Cornish Patient Representative (Chairman)
Wendy Denne Patient Representative
Gordon Frost Patient Representative
Sue Johnson Patient Representative
Ron Shrieve Patient Representative
John Ritchie Patient Representative
Bernard Robson Patient Representative
Victor Tun Senior Partner
Liz Wallace Patient Representative
Apologies for absence
Apologies were received from Tony Lidbury and Richard Allen
The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting and thanked them for coming. Sue Johnson was asked to pass a message on to Richard Allen, wishing him well from members of the Forum.
1. Minutes of the meeting held on 23 July 2014 and matters arising
The Minutes of the meeting held on 23 July 2014 were agreed as a correct record.
o Summary Care Records
Summary Care Records have now been created for all patients at Whyteleafe. This is an obligation under the GP contract and reservations expressed by Forum members have had to be over-ruled.
o Section 106 funding and Capital Grant
The practice has been contacted by PropCo to indicate that they are willing to pass the S106 money back to NHS England Surrey & Sussex Area Team and that funds should be made available to the practice as soon as possible to start the project.
The practice has been informed that the application for a capital grant to cover part of the cost of converting the practice manager’s room to a clinical room and replacing non-compliant flooring throughout the remainder of the building has been agreed in principle. However, there has not been any confirmation that funds will be made available.
o Website statement
A statement has been posted on the practice website informing patients that patients aged over 18 can register with Emis Access which will enable them to use the on-line functions for electronic booking of appointments and requests for repeat prescriptions. By March 2015 patients who have registered for these services will also be able to view and printcertain elements of their clinical record held at the surgery online. Plans are in hand to facilitate this, subject to software roll out from our clinical system supplier.
The practice also already meets the Governments stated requirement of a daily upload to the Summary Care Record and the use of GP2GP to electronically transfer records when patients register or de-register at the practice
Patients will need to register at the practice before they can use this service. To register they will need to call into the surgery and provide photographic ID (for example a driving license or passport).
2. Update on local/national NHS developments:
o Brief review of recent intense national press reports
There has been much discussion in the press recently about the proposed extension of access to Primary Care to include seven day cover from 8.00am to 8.00pm. This was discussed at a practice meeting with the Clinical Commission Group (CCG) with reference to Surrey Downs CCG who are funding extended surgery hours through reduced attendance at A&E. It is known that there are certain groups of people who always use the emergency department. These include parents of children who take them to A&E after school having refused the offer of a 6.30pm appointment with a GP and working adults who attend A&E in the early evening because they do not want to take time off in the day to see their GP. In theory, if walk-in evening surgeries were available, those people could be seen within primary care and the £90 cost of each A&E attendance could be saved. Some areas have introduced 8.00am – 8.00pm working using pump prime money from the government but the amount allocated is insufficient to develop this nationwide. However, structural changes within the NHS are making it possible to introduce new schemes as money saved can now be retained within the CCG to develop appropriate care. It is likely that any such initiative in this area would be a locality solution with patients attending a neighbourhood centre (such as Caterham Dene) with GPs and nurses working on a rota basis. Appropriate funding and IT infrastructure would be required. Forum members agreed to support these ideas at CCG level.
o Clinical Commissioning Group
The next patient reference group meeting is due to be held on 14 October. John Ritchie and Susan Cornish will both try to attend but have other commitments on that day. Other members of the group were unavailable to attend.
o Enhanced services
GPs have been very involved over the last few weeks with two new services being implemented by the practice this year. The first is a national scheme to avoid emergency admissions for those patients considered most at risk as identified by risk stratification software. These patients have been invited to join a special register and care plans have been drawn up for each individual. An additional scheme introduced as a locally commissioned service by the CCG aims to develop multi-disciplinary working with community teams (where appropriate) and improve information held by the ambulance and Out of Hours service for those patients on the register. A reduction in the number of emergency admissions would be good for patients and good for finances as these can often cost four or five thousand pounds.
o Car parking
There is no update to the parking situation
3. Patient Feedback
o Friends and Family Test - report from working party
Sue Johnson, John Ritchie and Susan Cornish have formed a sub group to look at this issue which needs to be implemented at the practice by 1 December 2014. They used a good executive summary of guidance available on the internet to inform their discussions. Susan explained to the Forum that the practice is required to provide an opportunity for patients to provide anonymous feedback using at least two questions, one of which has standardised wording and one other which must require a free text response. Responses to the first question have to be submitted to NHS England every month. The need to be sensitive (ie not asking the same people repeatedly) and inclusive were considered. The Friends and Family test can replace the annual questionnaire organised by the patient group and should therefore provide feedback required by the group to ensure CQC compliance. The CCG have recommended use of the “I want great care” website to implement the project. Concern was expressed by one member about the terms and conditions of the site. Surrey and Sussex Local Medical Committee (LMCS) have also collaborated with iWantGreatCare to provide an additional processing service for paper forms for a small charge. It was decided to make use of this facility to ensure that patients unable or unwilling to use the internet to provide feedback would be fully represented.
The process will be started with a soft launch within the practice making use of the promotional material supplied by iWantGreatCare. This can be followed up by members of the Forum encouraging patients to provide feedback (probably in paper format) in the waiting room as in previous years. Sufficient response is required to inform the Forum action plan and it was agreed that this should be sensible and achievable. The working group will provide on-going monitoring and review – feedback requested to Susan by telephone.
o Review of complaints
The practice recently held its annual complaints review at which time any trends in complaints are considered. Formal complaints have been minimal. They have mostly related to clinical concerns and have been addressed by the GPs personally with the patients. The practice meeting considered issues raised via social media (NHS Choices) and have been looking at different ways of working to reduce the times patients are kept waiting at the practice to see a clinician.
Forum members expressed concern that the practice was not being reflected in a positive light by a few adverse comments on the NHS Choices website despite the practice being very well regarded within the local community.
4. Matters to be included in the Practice website
Minutes from the meeting held on 23 July will now be published on the website and in the Waiting Room
There is already a link to iWantGreatCare on the website.
5. Any other business
o Clinical Commissioning and Engagement
The specification for this service requires the practice to disseminate key CCG messages to our patients and Patient Participation Group. The Forum is already actively involved in the CCG Patient Reference Group. Main topics covered at CCG meetings are usually discussed at Forum meetings but in addition to this a brief summary of the topics covered at the monthly CCG meetings was provided at this meeting. In brief these included:
July 2014
Data sharing agreements with Out of hours providers; QIPP (Quality, Innovation, Productivity and Prevention) budgets; referral spends at practice level
August 2014
A presentation and question session with Out of Hours providers including
IC24 covering the 111 facility and ShareMyCare; St Catherin’s hospice; Michael Wilson from East Surrey Hospitaland a representative from South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb)
September 2014
Children and Adolescents Mental Health Service (CAHMS) Tier 2 and 3 services commissioned from Surrey and Borders Partnership (SABP)
Paediatric High Volume Condition Clinical Pathways developed to ensure that children are seen by the right person in the right location.
Uploading of Care Plans to IC24 and SECAmb.
Commissioning Intentions document
David Milner, Finance Director, report highlighting:
· Numbers of referrals had increased
· Spending at other acute trusts such as St Georges was over budget
· Need to reduce referrals and the level of spend in the acute sector
6. Issues to be treated as confidential and therefore deemed to be Part 2 items of Minutes
There were no issues to be treated as confidential
7. Dates of future meetings
The next Forum meeting will be held on Wednesday 14 January 2015 at 7.00pm