MINUTES OF PATIENT PARTICIPATION GROUP MEETING HELD AT THE LEEDS ROAD SURGERY THURSDAY 14TH JUNE 2012
Present:Malcolm Wailes (Chair)MW
Debbie Trantor (Secretary)DT
Andrew King (Practice Manager)AK
Ann Olesqui-MeadusAOM
Jennifer Stacey (Huby Rep)JS
Amanda Addyman (Spofforth Rep)AA
Apologies:Brenda Sutcliffe
Guy Dickie
Catherine Dee
Ann Morris
Stephanie Voice-Walker
1 Apologies and Welcomes
MW welcomed everyone to the meeting. The PPG hasnow adequate representation from thegeographical areacovered by the practice but if anyone wanted to join they should be invited to join the Virtual Group.
2Minutes of last meeting – 1st March 2012
Minutes of previous meeting were approved as a reflection of events. One item that wasn’t mentioned in the last meeting was the PPG Terms of Reference and AK would email these to DT to send out with the minutes.
3Spofforth Area
Amanda reported that she hadn’t had any requests to join the Virtual Group. Anything that is discussed at the meeting that is relevant to the Spofforth area now goes into the Parish Magazine and is reported to the Parish Council. AK said that this was great news and good business sign posting for the Practice. MW said that if the awareness of the practice is there, there is nothing else that can be done.
AK emailed the secretary of the Parish Council because there is an issue with payment/room space and various other issues and AK has said that he is willing to go along to the next Council meeting. AK mentioned that the Practice nearly had to pull out of the village hall because of costs. AA said that she would put something in her next report to the Parish Council.
4Huby Area
AK mentioned that with CQC coming on board, there is no funding available to provide a service at Huby. It will take too much investment and AK wouldn’t want to impose that onto the future of the village. Leeds Practice would not own the building and would only be a tenant. AK said that looking at the CQC guidance, the Practice were unlikely to meet the level of legislation and that Huby would probably be removed from their list of places that they would provide a service.
JS said that most patients tend to go the Spofforth as the route is easy and tend to get appointments quicker than Leeds Road.
5Dispensing Patients – Feedback
AK said that the practice had lost nearly 1500 dispensing patients and said that from a patient perspective it had gone fairly smoothly and that the practice has had no real come back. The issues have been with the pharmacists and their administrative procedures. For the remainder of the dispensing patients, the practice is looking at meeting with a shopkeeper in Kirby Overblow as a drop off point for prescriptions. AK to update at next meeting.
AOM mentioned that the Pharmacist on Kings Road has now closed. This is because Kings Road Surgery bought the licence from Cohens and the surgery now has a pharmacy which is open 40 hours per week.
6Practice Update
AK stated that industrial action is to go ahead for BMA members. The Practice’s view is that they are in complete support of that action. However, notices have been put out on the website and on the notice board in Reception that even though the practice supports this action, they will not be going on strike as they believe patients come first.
On the 28th June the Practice will be closed between 1-3pm in order for the upgrade of the IT and telephone systems. Telephone system is fairly simple – there are options and these options last for 30 seconds and it is a one choice press. For any patient that has difficulty understanding the system theycan hold and they will be put through to the next available operator. The practice is not putting an option on for urgent calls. The reason being is that having discussed this with 10 other Practices who have had this optionthey say that it gets abused. The practice is not an emergency service so a 10-15 minute wait is acceptable. If the call is an emergency then the patient calls 999 or from next year 111. If not, then the patient calls NHS Direct. The new telephone system will stack the patient up and will tell you what number you are in the queue.
AK said that they will get complaints which he will get his staff to try and consolidate the list of concerns prior to the upgrade. Update at next meeting.
Carol Bedford retires from the practice after 22/23 years of service. Pat Peters has also retired after 21 years of service. Other member of the Admin team is leaving on the 6th July. Sister Gail Sibling will be starting with the Practice on the 2nd July. AK said that he would invite her along to a future meeting. Advert has gone out for a Medical Administrator and a Medical Receptionist. MW asked AK to pass on our thanks and best wishes to Carol Bedford and Pat Peters.
The practice has a Locum coming in becauseone of the GPs has been called for Jury Service.
AK mentioned that that Flu Clinics will start in October . Dates to follow and how the practice will be running them. The practice will be informing patients through various methods, i.e. Onrepeat prescriptionslips, text messaging and by letter.
On the website is the Practice and PPG end of year report which has been compiled from various from minutes of the meetings over the year. AK said that the practice is now trying to get involved with NHS Research with North Yorkshire Research and Education Network and the National Research Network which is all NHS approved funded. It meets guidelines and it’s about the development of cures. The majority of research that the Practice will be involved in is non-pharmaceutical. Some the research that the Practice is looking at the moment is the early arthritis studies, picking up patients that present with joint pain and trying to identify at an early stage, the three C’s – Coughs, Cancers and Cardio-related Disease and Diabetes.
7Clinical Consortium Group
MW handed out a presentation that he and Guy Dickie attended.
8Patient Participation Group Report – March 2012
AK said that the PPG report is on the website and as soon as he receives the minutes, these go on the website as well. MW said that what was interesting was the age profile of the Practice. AK said that he was hoping to get some funding locally to do some work with the 16-24 year olds which is 6% of the Practice’s patients.
9Proposed Patient Survey
MW said that at the last meeting we were going to try and put together a patient survey. AK said that last year when we did the survey, we were going to identify long, medium and short terms needs of the Practice. One of the medium to long term outcomes was to run a patient survey this year. This proposed survey would ask patients about existing services which the practice provides .It will also ask patients what further services they would like to see in the future.
10Any Other Business
AOM asked if the practice had read a reportlinking heart disease with Calcium Supplements for Osteoporosis as many women going through the Menopause may well be taking Calcium Supplements. AK said that if anyone was worried by that, then they should see their doctor.
11Date of Next Meeting
September 13th 2012 at 18:30pm at the Leeds Road Surgery.