MERSEA PRACTICE PATIENTS GROUP

Minutes for the meeting on

Tuesday 19th January 2016

At the Clinic, Barfield Road, at 5.30 pm

Mr Pat Richardson, Chairman / Mr Mike Daniels / Mr Harry Potts
Mr Alan Tucker / Mrs Su Rhys Jones, Secretary

Apologies: Ms Judith Wingar, Ms Sarah Hurley, Ms Sue Hempstead & Ms Jenny Chalkin

Guest: Paul Conroy, Practice Manager, Mersea Island Medical Practice

The meeting began with Paul giving a brief update on the Practice plans to move to East Road. The whole process is going more slowly than he had hoped, due to the various delays the design plans had had to go back to NHS England for financial approval. It is thought there will be a 10 to 12 week delay from agreement to starting the building works, then it will be a 6 month building contract, so it is now hoped to be in the new Practice by September or October.

There will be a new GP Registrar in May, she will be full time and here for 18 months. Dr Albi, a GP Registrar, is already in post and will be here until April 2017.

There are approximately 7,750 patients registered with the Practice and numbers are moving towards 8,000 which will mean they will have to have 4 qualified, full time GPs. Mike reported that his son, an Island resident, had been told the Practice list was closed and he should find a Doctor elsewhere. Paul said this was not the case, they are registering new patients and he should re-apply. There is no set ratio of patients per GP but 2,000 per GP is an accepted number.

Paul reported that numbers of patients having the flu jab this year were a little down on last year. Su thought that many may have had it at one of the chemists or supermarkets. Paul pointed out that this was lost income to the Practice as they were only paid for those using the Surgery Nurses. Su felt that this was not generally understood by patients and it should be made clearer as support for the Practice is essential.

Paul said that, taking in to account all the cuts already in place and those still in the planning stage, patients would have to take more responsibility for their own health. The Surgery had received calls asking if the Chinese Take-away was open, could someone go to the Dentist’s to confirm an appointment, insisted on an appointment with a cough they’d had for 2 days. Self-care is essential and it remains difficult to balance this with care for the elderly and frail. With more work being passed to GPs by the Hospitals, the management of time becomes critical.

The need for new equipment for the Surgery was discussed. All equipment and furniture would be moving with the staff, however, there will be need for extra, such as examination couches which cost approximately £1,200 each. Paul said he would have a list of essential equipment and agreed to share this with the Group. The new in-house Pharmacy is not part of the GP Practice, it will be an independent company.

How to publicise the work of the PPG was discussed, various suggestions were made including having a leaflet to put in to every school child’s reading bag or in to Mersea Life, another article in Mersea Life with perhaps a regular slot nearer to the front of the magazine, having a PPG member sit at the Practice asking patients to enrol. It will be possible for patients to become ‘virtual’ members and be kept informed of news, plans and minutes by email.

It was agreed that the Group will meet bi-monthly on the third Tuesday of the month, at 5.30 pm and at the Barfield Road Clinic. This means the next meeting will be Tuesday 15th March. A brief record, anonymised, of the meeting will be published in Mersea Life.

The Hospital’s bad publicity over the last 2 years was discussed. It was mentioned that the Hospital had made expensive forays in nurse recruitment by going overseas and questions were raised as to how many were still working at the Hospital; how many nurses recently qualified at the Hospital; how much did it cost the Hospital to train nurses; how many stay after qualifying and are the newly qualified students expected to stay in Colchester and for how long.

Actions:

i)Paul to draw up a list of equipment that could be funded by the Community

ii)Mike to speak to the Mersea School Headmistress about putting a leaflet in every child’s school bag.

iii)Pat to talk to Ralph at Mersea Life about a regular space for Practice & Group

iv)Pat to write an article for Mersea Life, that could be used as a A5 flyer, giving information about the Group and the aims of the Group.

1