Minutes of Danebridge PPG Meeting
Date: 18 February 2016
Venue: Kingsmead Surgery Meeting Room
ITEMS OF BUSINESS
1. Attendance
Present: Sue McKenzie, Les James, Valerie Mais, Les Moore, Monica Foster, Gwenno Shalders, Malcolm Coghlan, Sheila Bowker, Gilly Davis, Philip Greasby, Beth Hanson, Lee Brown, Sandra Tipper, Eleanor Thomas.
Apologies: Mark Breakspear, Colin Stayley.
Absent: Christine Pickthall, Moreen Morron.
Sue welcomed people to the meeting. She introduced Malcolm, who was attending as an observer.
2. Record of Previous Meeting and Action Points
Sue said Monica had corrected some errors in the minutes. She then reviewed outstanding Action points:
36/15 Philip suggested a member of PPG attend the 26 July practice meeting. PPG will decide who in June.
ACTION: PPG
40/15 Moreen’s interest in working with GPs to develop an approach to Sixth Formers was noted. We would explore how to take this forward at a future meeting.
63/15 Philip was actively looking at workarounds to help relieve pressure on reception.
64/15 Lee will take on the check of the Practice website for contacts in the meantime,
until a permanent owner can be assigned.
ACTION: Lee
65/15 Les James has researched ’First Aid for Citizens’ to see what leaflets were available. This was added this to the topics that interested PPG members.
3. NAPP Update
Lee drew attention to the following:
i. NAPP Annual Conference will take place on 11 June in the Park Hotel, Stretton. The theme is ’Transforming Services Together’. He suggested we decide who should attend at the April meeting.
ii. PPG Awareness week is 6 – 11 June. Again, we should consider wat topics we want to publicise and how we will resource the week at the April meeting.
iii. Planning Guidance for the Five Year Forward Plan was on line. There were implications for Primary Care. Philip said he would respond to them in his Practice Update.
iv. GP Patient Survey 2016 results were available on line. ’Northwich Guardian’ has publicised some of the findings.
v. Vale Royal CCG had gained responsibility for commissioning GP services.
4. Role of PPG in Supporting the Work of the Practice
Gilly had been asked to consider how PPG could add value to the Practice. She outlined a number of areas:
i. We could work with the Carers’ Trust to increase coverage of this important area of support. Discussion centred on PPG members improving their understanding of what is available, and when they should attend. Gilly will speak tothe Carers’’ Trust to check what PPG could do.
ACTION: Gilly
ii. PPG members could attend the surgeries to show patients how to navigate the surgery. In particular they could help patients to use the appointment screens.
iii. Gilly suggested we seek to develop the ’virtual’ PPG concept to involve younger people and gain their feedback on the Practice.
iv. PPG could work with the Practice to encourage patients to use on line booking of appointments. Sue supported this and said we could raise it when promoting other topics in surgeries. Monica supported this and said we needed a simple guide to help brief people.
Sandra suggested using new patient’s registration forms to gain their email address and brief them on on-line booking.
Malcolm said that repeat prescriptions gave an opportunity to brief patients. Sandra suggested producing a leaflet and issuing it to them. Philip said the Practice would consider these ideas.
Monica recommended that our PPG leaflet be reviewed to cover this issue, and we take it forward during PPG Awareness Week. This was accepted.
Gilly asked how PPG wished to proceed. Sue said we needed to decide what our priorities are and how we can deliver them. She outlined an approach where a PPG member champions an issue/topic/condition, sources publicity material, develops proposals on our approach and then arranges for PPG volunteers to delivery it in surgeries.
This division of labour would enable people to focus on topics which interested them, add value and make better use of our limited resources.
Ellie supported this approach. As an example she said she had contacted the Deafness Network and outlined how she could take this forward and report back to PPG as ’champion’ on their issues.
Sue stressed that if the PPG were to be effective we need to turn the ideas generated during the meetings into firm Action Plans. Sue said our aim should be to get to a position where we can say at least a month in advance what activities we will undertake to support the Practice. She said we should have a routine agenda item each month on what issue/topic/condition we are going to focus on, when, who and what we will do. This could be fed into by the various ‘champions’ as relevant
ACTION: Lee
Gilly offered to circulate information on national campaigns.
ACTION: Gilly
5. Feedback from Meeting with Cuddington et al Village Plan Improvement Group
Sue reported back on a productive meeting. She had produced a note for circulation. Key messages are
i. Communication needs to be improved and made consistent across media on areas such as opening times.
ii. The Group saw Danebridge as an effective practice which sought feedback from patients.
iii. The Practice could improve by advertising its services more clearly, being more proactive in providing information, giving clearer phone messages when people cannot get through and using the Cuddington village newsletter ‘Round Tower’ to publicise its approach.
Permission had been given by the Parish Council for the PPG to submit an article outlining the role of the PPG and the initiatives underway in the Danebridge Practice such as on-line appointments.
Sue will draft an article and circulate it to Gilly, Philip, Beth, Valerie, Les James and Les Moore for comment.
ACTION: Sue
Valerie will contact ’Hartford News’ to see if they will take an equivalent article.
ACTION: Valerie
6. Practice Update
Philip told PPG
i. A Practice Pharmacist had been appointed. She will start in May. This would relieve pressure on GPs around prescription reviews and related areas.
ii. Recruitment of a new GP is ongoing.
iii. The ’GP Alliance’ covering Vale Royal and south Cheshire had met to discuss funding and services. Danebridge GP partners would now need to decide what to prioritise.
The practice was assessed as 4½ stars from ratings given by patients comments on the service.
7. Any other Business
It was agreed that a letter should be sent to people who had expressed an interest in receiving information on PPG but had not provided email addresses.
ACTION: Lee
Next Meeting: 17 March 2016
Agenda Items: Next Month’s Work Programme
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