Forest Hill Road Group Practice Patient Participation Group Meeting
April 2017
Date and Time / 27/04/2017 18:30 / Minute Taker / Priya Venkatesan
Location / Forest Hill Road Group Practice / Date Published / 1st June 2017
Chair / Gerald Armstrong / Date Approved by FHRGP PPG

Attendees:

FHRGP: Dr Doris Masaba, Priya Venkatesan (Deputy Practice Manager), Leslie Quaye (Pharmacist), Imrane Visoka (Receptionist),

Day Lewis: Ady Olayide, Kim Field

Patients: Tina Thorpe, Gerald Armstrong, Joan McIvor, Rosemary Shaw, Sue Boreham, Chris Hyett, Judy Davids, Gary Ostrolenk, Adenola Olayide, Nicola Burland (Age UK)

Agenda Item / Discussion
Introductions with introduction to agenda
(+ attendance sheet)
Action
For further review / The Chair introduced herself andgave an overview and context of agenda items.All those present were requested to sign in and introduce themselves. Tina introduced the two people from Day Lewis Pharmacy Ade and Kim following discussions about prescriptions this month. She felt it useful to have a perspective from both Leslie FHRGP pharmacist and outside the practice pharmacist input also due to the fact that rather concentrating on one subject, try something different e.g. “trying to thrash it out”.
(Hand over to Doris Masaba)
Dr Masaba: Doris introduced Priya as the practice’ new Deputy Manager, who started with the FHRGP on 9th March. Priya will be dealing with the day to day tasks such as; PPG, patient complaints, staffing, HR and open Exeter. Leslie Quay as practice pharmacist who started with us in February to cover Rachel Norris’ maternity leave.
Dr Masaba reminded the PPG that the practice’ newsletter which is displayed on the FHRGP website has been running for the past year and; she is trying to do a quarterly update on staff leaving and staff joining the practice - with following reminder that; we are a teaching and training practice.
Tina asked if anybody left the practice since the last PPG meeting? Dr Masaba replied “yes” and updated all with leavers and joiners. Tina asked if the practice is fully staffed? Dr Masaba replied “No”. Tina asked how many staff down are we? Dr Masaba replied “down 2 GPs at present, but we are always recruiting, but in the interim we do recruit locums where necessary as we are committed to providing a certain number of appointments per week. We do try to use locums we know.
Staff leaving: Elaine Burrows (retiring on 28th April 17 after 24 years with the practice), Carole Jones admin prescriptionist (retiring on 5th May 17 after 27 years), Veronica Nickels data administrator (retiring 31st May 17 after 20 years), Dr Annette Roberts GP Locum (Retired), Dr Hashmi Salaried GP (resigned), Claudette Mullings Practice Nurse (Retired), Dawn Mitchell Receptionist (resigned). New staff: Dr Victoria Woodhams (Salaried GP) Mon, Weds, Friday - Dr Razia Auckbarally (GP Registrar) with the practice until August. Victoria Orimolade (Practice Nurse), Priya (Deputy Manager) and Leslie (Practice Pharmacist).
Dr Caroline McColl is on long-term sick leave – no return date as yet but she does thank everyone for their good wishes.
AOQ: On line, or if phoning up, the earliest appointment if not urgent is 3 weeks or longer. Also noticed; all appointments available are before 10.30am. If you a carer, it is impossible to get to the surgery, so why are there not more appointments available and why do we not have appointments that can be booked later on from 10.30, and if you are a carer, is there a set day to go on line to book a date when the appointments have been released as there are many patients who have chronic or personal issues who require consistency
Response:
Dr Masaba: There are appointments later than 10.30, we have a lot of demand for appointments before 10.30 and outside of this appointments are embargoed). From a partnership prospective; we cannot have too much on the day demand without having routine appointments. We have worked out that we have 50% pre-bookable and 50% on the day appointment slots, therefore patients who call up on the day probably will get an appointment. When the surgery is closed patients are advised to call Seldoc the out of hours service. We have a variety of services e.g. routine appointments (which can be booked in advance) - on the day triage appointments (where the patients details are taken, and a GP will call them back at some stage throughout the day) - telephone appointments (whereby a patient will call to speak to a doctor that day) – Patients can request such things as blood tests and other request, where they may not need to see a GP face to face. All GP’s at the surgery are specialised in general practice.
Priya: The reason for embargoed appointments is that we become very short of appointments, therefore every day we have 50 on the day appointments which patients’ can book by calling the surgery at 8am, routine appointments will be released every week and then every 10/14/21 days
Imrane: We do release appointments every day, we also suggest the Lister clinic to patients who find it inconvenient to attend any appointment time we offer, we also provide extended hours and open on Saturdays. The Lister (Peckham) offers acute appointments on the day, these are for patients whose GP will need to triage first, and they offer routine appointments for the following day or upto one week in advance.
What has been decided, as from when the books are opened again, is to have ⅔ pre-bookable routine appointments and ⅓ on the day. Therefore, there will be more routine appointments pre-bookable at different times of the day. Secondly, what we are going to do is to make sure every routine appointment are bookable on line, as at present, it is not possible to see all the appointment slots, so all routine appointments, no matter what time of day, will be available on line, making it easier for patients to book and less stress on the phones for receptionists. At present, the Lister clinic is veryunderused on Sundays. Between 8am-8pm the GPs are sitting twiddling their thumbs.
Dr Masaba cannot confirm as yet as to whether a double appointment could be booked on line, but is assured patients can book two separate appointments at present. (further update to follow).
The practice does not have a leaflet explaining how the systems work (routine, triage, telephone appointments pathways)
In summary: If more than one appointment is required, one appointment can be booked online and has to be a single appointment, but will have ⅔ pre-bookable routine appointments and ⅓ on the day.
Brief Introduction about Age UK by Ms Nicola Burland Outreach Support Worker
Action: / This project aims to increase the numbers of patients using the Patient Online service. It aims to tackle digital inclusion and isolation experienced by older people living in Southwark and also gives us the opportunity to give older patients information on other services in the borough that can help improve their health and wellbeing. We do this by encouraging Patients to register for Patient online and help them to do this with the aid of tablets.
NB: looking forward for some volunteers to register in our Digital Champion Pilot Project
(Hand over to Lesley Quaye)
Summary of PPG Presentation
Obstacles Faced for Repeat Prescriptions Team
  • Increasing patient numbers
  • Emergency requests – medication not ordered in time
  • Bank Holiday panic
  • Early requests without explanation (e.g. going on holiday)
  • Requests for items not on repeat
  • Not having blood tests done when asked
  • Not booking in for reviews when asked
  • Delayed requests from 3rd parties (e.g. pharmacies)
  • Unsynchronised medication
  • GP time needed to sign repeats
These are not excuses but the reality that is faced daily.
Changes Implemented
  • Rota adjustments – full timer added to repeats team
  • Adding the date request received onto patient record for audit purposes
  • Medication query call back list
Potential Solutions
  1. Online ordering
  2. Underutilised
  3. Reduces paperwork
  4. Speeds up processing time
  5. Needs to be promoted more
  6. Interface improvements – is website user friendly enough?
  1. Electronic Repeat Dispensing (eRD)
  2. For patients with stable long-term conditions
  3. Request to surgery not needed
  4. Patient can get a set number of supplies from Community Pharmacy
  5. Currently set up for all dosette tray patients
  6. Need to extend to more patients
  1. Synchronisation of medication
  2. More efficient
  3. Less requests from patients – everything ordered at once
  4. Synchronisation forms available for patients to complete
  5. Community Pharmacy can help with this during Medicines Use Reviews
  1. Community Pharmacy
  2. Support for self-care – not everything needs to be on prescription or diagnosed by a GP
  3. Minor ailments – Pharmacy First
  4. Medicines Use Reviews (MURs)
  5. Synchronisation of meds
  6. Promote EPS
  7. Promote eRD
  8. Free up GP time with the services offered
Key messages for patients
  • Respond to requests for reviews and blood tests
  • Order medication on time (e.g. 1 week before running out)
  • Allow extra time for repeats if requesting through Community Pharmacy
  • Get meds synchronised
  • Utilise technology – EPS, eRD, Online ordering

medication Synchronising Form

Following a review of your repeat prescription, we notice that you often run out of your regular medicines and need to order different items at different times.

We would like to synchronise your medications so they all run out at the same time. Then you can order all of your regular medication at the same time. This will reduce the amount of times you have to order you repeat prescriptions and visit the surgery and/or the pharmacy.

To achieve this we will issue you a one off prescription with enough of each of your medicines to add to the ones remaining at home, bringing them all in to line. After that they should all run out at the same time and you will be able to order all of them together from now.

Please fill out the form below for all your repeat medication and hand it in the next time you order a repeat prescription.

Patient Name: / Date of Birth:
Address: / Nominated Pharmacy for Electronic Prescriptions:
Name of Regular Medication / Strength / How many do you take a day? / How many do you have left? / PRACTICE USE ONLY
Quantity for 1 full supply / PRACTICE USE ONLY
Quantity to issue for sync
Example:
Aspirin dispersible tablets / 75 mg / 1a day / 10 / 28 / 18

A new way to get your medicines and appliances

The Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) is an NHS service. It gives you the chance to change how your GP sends your prescription to the place you choose to get your medicines or appliances from.

What does this mean for you?

If you collect your repeat prescriptions from your GP you will not have to visit your GP practice to pick up your paper prescription. Instead, your GP will send it electronically to the place you choose, saving you time.

You will have more choice about where to get your medicines from because they can be collected from a pharmacy near to where you live, work or shop.

You may not have to wait as long at the pharmacy as there will be time for your repeat prescriptions to be ready before you arrive.

Is this service right for you?

Yes, if you have a stable condition and you:

don’t want to go to your GP practice every time to collect your repeat prescription.

collect your medicines from the same place most of the time or use a prescription collection service now.

It may not be if you:

don’t get prescriptions very often.

pick up your medicines from different places.

How can you use EPS?

You need to choose a place for your GP practice to electronically send your prescription to. This is called nomination. You can choose:

a pharmacy.

a dispensing appliance contractor (if you use one).

your dispensing GP practice (if you are eligible).

Ask any pharmacy or dispensing appliance contractor that offers EPS or your GP practice to add your nomination for you. You don’t need a computer to do this.

Can I change my nomination or cancel it and get a paper prescription?

Yes you can. If you don’t want your prescription to be sent electronically tell your GP. If you want to change or cancel your nomination speak to any pharmacist or dispensing appliance contractor that offers EPS, or your GP practice. Tell them before your next prescription is due or your prescription may be sent to the wrong place.

Is EPS reliable, secure and confidential?

Yes. Your electronic prescription will be seen by the same people in GP practices, pharmacies and NHS prescription payment and fraud agencies that see your paper prescription now.

Sometimes dispensers may see that you have nominated another dispenser. For example, if you forget who you have nominated and ask them to check or, if you have nominated more than one dispenser. Dispensers will also see all the items on your reorder slip if you are on repeat prescriptions.

For more information visit your pharmacy or GP practice.

April 2013 ref: 4742

Date of next PPG meeting: TBA (18.30-20.00) at FHRGP.

Date of the following PPG Meeting:

Visit and click on patient group for agendas and minutes

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