Hamilton Medical Centre
Patient Participation Group Meeting
Minutes of Meeting
Wednesday 17th May 2017
1. Present:
Dr Abel Adegoke (AA), Mark Deevey (MD) (Practice Manager), Adrian Jones (AJ) (Assistant Manager), Gail Spencer (GS) (Practice Administrator).
Group Members: Alfred White (AW), Beryl White (BW), Daniel Pierre-Louis (DP), Yolande Pierre-Louis (YP), Jane Corson-Bates (JC), Sue Hughes (SH).
2.Apologies:
Janet Timperley (Practice Nurse), Corina Davies, Anthony Baines, Edward Upton, Paul Epton
3.CCG - Structure & latest update:
Discussed by AA - Budget for Wirral last year in deficit of 11 million, not enough
resources due to funding cuts.CCG under direction to get back into budget.NHS nationally in deficit, certain areas/hospitals may come together in the future to help save costs
Five new Phlebotomy hubs opened on the Wirral and restrictions on prescribing Paractamol etc due to overspending(Phlebotomy Service survey handed out to members).
4.Federation & the Future:
AA said the creation of the Federation is to bring GP practices together,the Federations work together to put new services into place. There are 53 GP practices on the Wirral. There have been 2 federations created, Primary Care Wirral Federation for which our practice is a member and GPW Fed. MD said Primary Care Wirral (PCW) has 27 practices, with over 210k patients, which is over 63% of Wirral patient population and the other practices make up GPW Fed. PCW is a Community Benefit Society, which means that we conduct business for the benefit of the Community and not the Shareholders, this enables us to closely work with charities and businesses, whereas GPW Fed is set up as a limited company which puts restrictions on them that we have not got. Any profits PCW make go directly back into the primary health care on the Wirral.
PCW Federation was established a year ago and initially GP and Practice Managers got together and wanted to start a new fresh federation, with new young faces and different faces leading the federation with fresh ideas and wanting to involve and ensure all decisions were made by all its member fairly and not dictated to by one or two GPs as in the past. PCW’s aim was to create one large Wirral Federation, but certain practices did not agree to this change, so they are members of GPW Fed and this is the reason we have 2 federations on the Wirral instead of one large federation like in most places. PCW aims are still to create one large federation, but GPW Fed does not want this at present. MD has been on the development group for PCW since it started and it has grown and become very positive for Wirral and their patients in what it has achieved already in such a short space of time. The two Wirral Federations have worked together to bid forfunds available after the All Day Health Centre had closed down. New extended hour Hubs have been created by the two Wirral Federations using these funds for this financial year, it started this month to enable further access to appointments between 6.30pm & 8.00pm, Monday to Friday and Saturday mornings for all Wirral patients, more information to follow from the federations. We hope funding for this will increase over the next few years and the capacity offered to patients to rise considerably. There are many further projects and services that PCW Federation will bid for which will benefit patients and the practice federations. You can find more information about the PCW federation by visiting its website at .
5.Surgery latest update:
We are due to have a visit from The Care Quality Commission (CQC) on 14th June 2017, results of this visit will be published by NHS England. SH agreed to participate on behalf of the PPG, SH has kindly agreed to come in and meet with CQC at 2pm on this day. We also have another member of the PPG group Paul Epton, who unfortunately couldn’t make the meeting but has also volunteered to come in and meet CQC on this day at 11am.
AJ informed group that from 1st April this year all prescription requests will now be ready in 48 hours as in line with all other GP practices on the Wirral (repeat prescriptions should not be affected, as long as we have your white slip).
MD informed the group that the Citizens Advice Bureau has now changed to Ask us Wirral, we can still refer patients, and we still have a fortnightly clinic at the surgery, referrals can go through reception, we are fortunate to be one of a few surgeries to be chosen to keep our clinics. Ante-natal Clinics are every Monday afternoon at the surgery and they are run by Arrowe Park Midwives. We have in-house Counsellors available, these are volunteer Counsellors who are currently undertaking counselling qualifications. AA has a Minor Surgery Clinic once a month. We have On Line Services for ordering of scripts, booking appointments and viewing your own medical records.
Action:
AJ to check access for BW
6.Patient Survey Results:
Discussed by AJ, the surgery is open to suggestions from patients, regarding anything that can improve the surgery and benefit the patients. Maybe put suggestion box in the surgery.
MD mentioned new GP Dr Adeogun starting from June. He will work 2 days a week Monday & Thursday doing 4 surgeries over these days, this should stabilise the appointment system and patients will now have regular GPs on each day.
Action:
MD to discuss with AJ about suggestion box being put in waiting room
7.Appointments & Reducing DNA’s:
MD gave out a latest audit of results showing amount of unattended appointments (DNA’s - ‘Did Not Attend’) from April. We still have a problem with people not attending appointments. There was 79 DNA’s in April wasting over 13 hours of clinical time that could have been used by other patients who couldn’t get appointments. 32 appointments were for a GP which in cost terms is costing about £600 in wasted GP time.
Action:
AJ to put a notice in waiting room to let patients know how this affects other patients/costs/inconvenience and add/update monthly with previous months DNA figures. AJ also to add to TV in waiting room monthly.
8.Future of the PPG Group:
The group decided that future PPG meetings need to be held quarterly. The group discussed possibility of a patient becoming chair of the PPG group and Secretary. YP & SH volunteered. MD left this for people to show there interest by emailing him at and we will make final voting and decision on roles at next meeting.
9.Any other business:
The lease of our building is due to run out, AA would like to expand and hopefully move to new and bigger premises. Possible new site discussed, and we are waiting on NHS feedback. If we move it will only be in the local area and the move is purely to benefit the patients, we hope a move would bring better parking and attract more services to the practice for the patients.
MD gave out a link to a survey that the local CCG want patients to complete with their feedback of the Phlebotomy Service how it is now. MD mentioned we are against the new look service and strongly think the new service should be based in practices as well as hubs so it’s best for all patients. MD explained that a lot of our patients just cant or wont go to the hub. It also increases clinical risk as once the patient is asked to go to the phlebotomy hub the practice has no tracking of the patient attending etc whereas clinics in the surgery we could see if a patients has booked in or dna’d etc and follow up accordingly.
AJ asked the group if it was ok to take a few photos of the group meeting so we can add them to the website, the group agreed. MD took some photos
Action:
MD to attach to the email any of the documents given out at the meeting. Hard copies of this minutes and attachments to be sent to the PPG members who haven’t got an email address.
AJ to add photos to website.
10. The group decided due to school holidays etc. that the next meeting is be
Scheduled for September(date to be confirmed).
1