CHURCH VIEW SURGERY PATIENT PARTICIPATION GROUP
MINUTES OF COMMITTEE MEETING
HELD AT CHURCH VIEW SURGERY, COLLINGHAM,ON WEDNESDAY 22nd MARCH 2017
Present: Ian Robertson (IR), Steven Wood (SAW)Barrie Dyer (BD),Dianne Gibbins (DG), Marjorie Wilson (MW), Anne Milne (AM), together with Dr Rachael Crabbe (RC) and Jane Foster(JF)
- INTRODUCTION AND WELCOME
IR, the Chairman, welcomed members and the Practice representatives to the meeting. IR had met with Mrs Mary Rycroft and had invited her to join the Committee. John Groves had expressed an interest in joining the Committee and he would be invited to attend the next meeting.
2 APOLOGIES
(a)John Grey has confirmed he is moving from the area and has therefore had to resign from the Committee. IR expressed appreciation for the contribution he had made.
(b)Mary Rycroft has sent apologies
3MINUTES
The Minutes of the meeting held on Wednesday 1st February 2017 were approved, subject to an amendment sought by JF. The new doctor starting on 1st February was not a direct replacement for Dr. Skinner. Dr. Skinner does not actually leave until May 2017 (Minute 6(a)(ii))
4 MATTERS ARISING(other than covered on agenda)
(a)CPR and First Aid – training in such as CPR is something that needs to be delivered by a qualified trainer, and there may be a cost involved. Further enquiries will be made.
(b)Discussion for Family (diabetes etc.) BD was suggesting that there could be better training/advice for patients suffering long term conditions such as diabetes, and, in particular, for their partners and carers. RC explained that current practice is to give such advice, but that she would be willing to provide advice to the community if this was felt beneficial, and an appropriate venue could be arranged.
(c)Funding for PPG – there was currently no funding for the Group
(d)Objectives 2017 – the Committee would set objectives for the year, against which progress might be measured. RC and JR will consider whether there are any objectives the Practice would like to set.
5PRACTICE
(a)Staffing and resources update
The situation was very much the same as reported last time.
(b)Website
Helen will now be responsible for maintenance of the Practice web site. Photographs of the new doctors have gone on the web site, and some of the text updated.Theprocess for the renewal of prescriptions is being amended so that there is the chance for the patient to add comments.
(c)Debit cards
The machine is now working well and is well used.
(d)Information Screens
The IT people have fixed the internet connection, and the electricians are due to provide a power supply. The screens have been ordered and will be delivered and installed once the preliminary work is complete. There will be standard NHS information to be displayed, and the Practice will be shown how to add material. At that point JF will liaise with BD over the content to be displayed.
(e)Reception Seating
Higher seats for the waiting rooms at Thorner and Collingham, have been ordered. The seating at Collingham has been re-arranged, and the Waiting area de-cluttered.
(f)Property improvements
There is little scope for developing the premises at Collingham. The Practice will consider changes at Thorner, so that the Practice is in a position to make a timely application for funds, if funds become available.
(g)Newsletter
The latest Newsletter had gone to print IR and BD had been given an opportunity to comment on the draft.
(h)Bridge at Linton
IR reported that the bridge was due to re-open on 3rdSeptember 2017.
(i)Neighbourhood Plans
IR reported the Collingham Neighbourhood Plan was due to go to a referendum. The Linton Plan had been challenged.
6FUTURE TECHNOLOGY
(a) The increasing costs incurred in delivering a National Health Service meant there had to be new ways of delivering health care, and communications. The costs of producing and storing documents was now a major expense, which could be reduced, by moving towards more electronic communication and storage.
(b) Communities were being surveyed (from April) on proposals to reduce what is regularly prescribed e.g. generic painkillers, skin creams, and gluten free products
(c) Communication with patients of the Practice is patchy. A priority should be to obtain email addresses for patients. JF indicated the cost of communicating with patients by letter, to obtain this information, was likely to be prohibitive. Other methods e.g. Parish Newsletters and magazines were considered
(d) Although money has been made available to implement technology, this government funding is for CCGs to use, and not for individual practices.
(e) To encourage greater use of technology the web site should be improved and developed and maintained, so that patients were encouraged to use it.
(f) Other methods of communication e.g. Facebook, Instagram should be considered
(g) The doctors do meet with doctors from other practices on a regular basis, to discuss and share best practice
(h) IR reported the urgent need for this group was to load all those email addresses we have onto the new NHS system. DG agreed to help with this task. It would then be appropriate to invite more patients to join the group.
(i) Currently the difficulties we had, communicating with members of the PPG, meant that there had been little recent communication. For this reason it might be sensible to defer the Annual Meeting until the autumn when, hopefully, the current problems had been overcome.
7 NEW MODELS OF CARE AND WAYS OF WORKING IN GENERAL PRACTICE.
There was nothing to add on this topic.
RC and JF then left the meeting.
8 SOCIAL PRESCRIBING
(a)This initiative is to encourage the doctors in the Practice to consider alternatives to medication, to provide the Doctors with information about local groups and societies, in the expectation that they might encourage patients to take advantage of the support facilities available.
(b)It would only work if the individual doctors were aware of the information and were willing to make use of it
(c)It would primarily be an on line facility. This meant additional information, including links to web sites etc., could easily be added and kept up to date
(d)At the same time the information should be publicised e.g. referred to in Newsletters, and put on the Practice web site
(e)It should be brought up to date
9 VIRTUAL GROUP
(a)We currently have 270 members, but the facility to send to an address book had been lost.
(b)The Group can be developed when the current addresses have been entered on the new system (Minute 6(h) above)
10 LEEDS WEST CLINICAL COMMISSIONING GROUP
(a)The various CCGs were likely to amalgamate The 3 PAG groups had already been asked to amalgamate.
(b)BD has submitted a paper explaining how our PPG Committee functions, which has now been published.
(c)Leeds North CCG is setting up its own Virtual Group but Collingham will not participate
(d)Leeds Care Records – BD had referred a local problem, where Harrogate had been unaware of a patient’s condition (dementia) because of their inability to access records held on the Leeds system. This was recognised as a major problem, which was being addressed as a matter of urgency.
(e)One outcome of the Healthwatch Leeds Survey was to identify the need for local PPGs to communicate with one another, and with certain other groups (minority groups). BD has asked for contact details for other local PPGs, and for details of the minority groups e.g. youth groups, ethnic groups.
(f)Information about groups such as the PPG should be included in any New Patients’ Information Pack.
(g)Although GPs are expected to work a 52 hour week there is evidence that a significant number of practices close one or more afternoons. Some practices that are being paid extra for out of hours access, are closing during the normal day.
(h)The procedure for referring a patient for some alternative treatments has been simplified. Instead of the request going to the hospital, and then before a committee for approval, a GP can now refer direct for spinal treatment.
(i)Any steps to limit what is prescribed for patients (6(b) above) potentially creates a conflict of interest for the practitioner who is paid to issue the prescription
11 NAPP
(a)MWhas circulated the latest e-bulletins to members and to the Practice. Relevant issues referred to in the January edition are the need to support carers, and to combat loneliness. The February edition refers to Social Prescribing and its effectiveness.
(b)The NAPP Annual Conference will be held at Basingstoke in June
(c)The week 19th -24th June is PPG awareness week
12 ANY OTHER BUSINESS
(a) Training sessions – enquiries would be made of various bodies (including CCG and hospitals) about the provision of training
(b) Objectives 2017 – members of the Committee were asked to submit suggestions for objects to be set for the coming year, against which progress could be assessed.
16 DATE AND VENUE FOR THE NEXT MEETING
IR will circulate possible dates for the next meeting
Steven Wood
Secretary