Patient Group Committee Attendees Eric Hedges (EH) Margaret Clark (MC) Gerald Clark (GC) Christine Van Tromp (CVT) Cathie Ingram (CI) Jenny Brown (JB) John Shears (JS) David Eckersley (DE) Barbara Bennett (BB) Surgery Attendees: Patricia Clampett Practice Manager (PC) Shelley Scott-Horne Receptionist (SSH) Minutes Patient Participation Group Meeting 15 th September 2015 Virtual Group Attendees Documents Circulated: Meeting agenda & copies of the previous minutes Apologies Natasha Bee (NB), Margaret Shears (MS) (DE) & Tracie Roberts (TR) Jan Lovett (JL) Welcome Patricia Clampett welcomed the group and new member (BB) to the meeting. Minutes Minutes were read and approved CQC Inspection update PC proudly informed the group that following the CQC inspection on 5 th August the Practice has been given a Good rating across the board. The final report had yet to be published however when this was available it would be emailed to the PPG members and posted on the Practice website. The final report will be approximately 25 pages. JS and CVT congratulated the Practice on their achievement. PC circulated The report on the 17/09/15 Update on withdrawal from Galleywood Following the withdrawal of services and subsequent closure of Galleywood on 31 st July all equipment and patient related information transferred to MLS. The re-location of 844 patients to other local practices went as smoothly as could be expected. There are still requests being received by return to the MLS (which are dealt with on a case by case basis). 500 were retained at MLS CI fed back to the group that an ex-galleywood patient informed her she was very happy with her new GP and the transfer process.
There are currently still some outstanding financial issued being dealt with regarding utilities and telephone services. Mid Essex Clinical Commissioning Group (MECCG) meetings (JS&CVT) PPG Clustering (JS) JS fed back to the group regarding his recent attendance at the external meeting. JS reported on the MECCG Transformation Programme and the proposed pathways. Lynne Smith offered to attend external venues to offer information to patients & PPGs which the group felt was a good idea. Notes and Programme slides are attached for information. PPG Clustering CVT & JS reported that whilst clustering in more rural areas (Maldon/SWF/The Dengie) is being embraced there is no appetite for it among the Chelmsford Practices as it is felt that each surgery had its own particular issues and each would like their individual voices heard. Minutes are available on the MECCG website www.midessexccg.nhs.uk and meetings are held every 2 months. Election of a PPG Vice Chair &PPG Virtual lead It was felt that a Vice chair should be elected for the PPG and JS suggested CVT, this was seconded by EH who also offered to help occasionally if he is available. PC suggested that NB be asked to take on the VPPG lead and she will discuss this with her and. No action required PC has discussed with NB and she has agreed (17/09/15) GP/Nurse attendance at PPG Meetings It was felt by all members that it would be Good Practice for a GP and/or a Nurse to attend the PPG meetings. Dr Naqvi was invited to this meeting but declined due to the additional workload whilst other GPs were on annual leave. JS and CVT have both met with other PPG chairs who say that GP s attend meeting at other Practices. This was also mentioned by the CQC inspector in discussion with JS on 5 th August. JS felt that attendance by a GP is very important as we have 4 doctors and meet once a quarter, attendance at one meeting per year should not be too onerous. PC and JS would approach them and discuss this. PC has discussed this with Dr Forbes (19/09/15) who agrees that one of the Partners should attend in future. Virtual PPG/new registration pack Thanks were given to SSH for her time and effort to produce our new registration pack which has saved the reception team time as they no longer have to look for lots of forms. It has benefited the patients as they have everything in one pack with clear instructions on what is need to register with MLS. The PPG is clearly signposted in this pack and since we began using it the VPPG has increased by a third. ongoing PC & SSH
All new members receive a personal welcome email from PC welcoming them to the Practice. The patients are then added to her mailing list and the minutes from the most recent PPG meeting are sent out together with an invitation to the next meeting. It is the aim of the practice to continue to promote the PPG and VPPG this way with a view to increasing awareness and gaining new members. Flu campaign Promote PPG The first delivery of the 2015 flu vaccine is expected on Wednesday 16 th September with the first clinics being held on the 17 th and 19 th (Saturday). Other clinics will be added in response to patient demand. PC asked the group for volunteers from within the PPG to come into the Practice on Saturday and hand out leaflets and promote the PPG. JB offered to do this and other members for future clinics would be appreciated. Please contact PC if you are Available Thank you so much to JB who came to the surgery on Saturday 19 th to hand out leaflets. She has volunteered to do the same on Saturday 03 rd October. Dedicated PPG email address A new dedicated PPG email address has been set up mlsppg@nhs.net. This will enable patients to email questions, comments and ideas directly to this secure address. JS will access it weekly to respond where necessary and to the group. PPG members can of course continue to email PC directly should they so wish. Increasing clinical sessions to accommodate extra number transferred from Galleywood. Following the closure of Galleywood the Practice has undergone a number of changes: 1) The patient list has increased by approximately 500 patients. 2) The reception team working hours have been amended to ensure that there are always 2 members of staff on duty (barring exceptional circumstances). 3) The Nursing teams hours have changed significantly with 2 key members retiring before the end of the year. 4) GP s sessions have changed. PC is in discussion with the GPs regarding extended access and current GP rota s. It was already planned that Dr Forbes would working an additional session in the Practice offering ward rounds at Manor Lodge (Care Home) on a Tuesday PM on a regular basis. Dr Murphy has resigned from her post at Broomfield Hospital and may increase community Dermatology sessions in house. JS requested that PC provide figures on how many appointments are currently offered compared to the national average.
Patient complaints PC shared a small number of (anonymous) patient complaints with the group. All had recently been dealt with and provided a flavour of the unrealistic expectations some patients had. The aim was to gain the views of the group and implement some of their ideas on how they should be dealt with. SSH suggested that utilising the notice boards closest to reception may provide a valuable space for informing patients of some of the Practice s expectations e.g. Zero Tolerance, 48 hour prescription processing etc and could aid the reception staff when dealing with a face to face complaint from a patient. Reception Area MC raised the issue of privacy at the reception desk and recounted two instances where a private area would have been useful for both staff and patients. PC explained that this had come up as an issue before and space is the limiting factor as the Practice rarely has spare rooms and there is nowhere to site a dedicated private area. PC and the Partners are already looking at how to create an additional consultation room by sacrificing the current staff room and taking space from elsewhere. The Practice will look again at trying to create a private area but in the interim SSH suggested that notices advising patients that they could ask to speak to a team member privately if needed may help. Long Term Conditions Patient education events JS and CVT fed back to the group about education events for long term conditions (LTC) that other PPG s arrange for their groups and it was strongly felt that this was something we should be getting on board with too. JB offered the use of the meeting room at Moulsham Lodge Community Trust (MLCT) the old police station on Gloucester Avenue. JS will look into the possibility of planning something like this in the future. Ladies wellbeing (WOW) Day Saturday 24 th October JB from MLCT informed the group of the Ladies wellbeing day that is being supported by a number of groups including Farleigh Hospice and MLS who will be offering stop smoking, blood pressures and flu vaccinations as well as promoting the PPG. PC agreed to add this to the Practice website as well as any future events. The MLCT will eventually offer treatment rooms and it is their aim to encourage the Diabetic Eye Screening and Toe Nail cutting Services (two very valuable community services) on site and in the future offered to host educational/ expert patient themed medical meetings. Newsletter PC asked the group for items to include in the next Newsletter. Suggestions were - Zero Tolerance update to patients (SSH), VPPG and dedicated email address (SSH) MLCT events (JB). PC hopes to publish it week beginning 05/10 SSH to talk to Kerry (who administers the notice boards) JS to JB to provide PC with a poster for the event on 24/10 to advertise it in the surgery and on the website produce draft newsletter &
AOB Moulsham Lodge Surgery send to JS for comment Medication quantities (EH) EH raised the question surrounding the quantity of regular medication that could be supplied at any one time. PC explained that Batch prescriptions could be issued for between 6 12 months to compliant patients. These batch prescriptions are sent to the pharmacy of choice and issued at the specified intervals (usually every 2 months). As long as patients have their tests when requested and the results are within clinical limits this means patient may only need to see a GP once or twice a year for medication reviews. PC also explained that there is an NHS cap of 3 months for prescriptions being ordered for patients travelling abroad. Automatic appointments (EH) EH suggested that whilst the SMS reminder system is useful for confirming and reminding patients of their [already] booked appointments, he wondered if the Practice could book the review appointment for patients and send the appointment date & time to them via SMS asking them to confirm or cancel? PC explained that this may be difficult with the current system however she will investigate to see if changes could be made. EH also asked why most clinic appointments (i.e. Diabetes reviews) were not available for online booking. PC explained that when the new online service was first made available, patients were booking appointments in the wrong slots; for instance a blood test appointment (5 minutes) was booked in to a COPD review (45 minutes) and this put additional pressure on appointment availability in general. SMS Service PC informed the group that the plan to remove free SMS service at the end of September 2015 had been delayed until 31 st March 2016. MECCG will be paying for the service to continue. Day Lewis Pharmacy prescriptions BB asked about the process of ordering prescription at the Pharmacy rather that at the Practice. PC explained that whilst it may be more convenient for patients, it can actually delay the ordering process as we require 2 working days to process requests and are reliant on the Pharmacy bringing the order to us. BB expressed her surprise as she and other patients thought that prescriptions ordered directly at the Pharmacy were processed immediately. JB suggested adding a note to the box in the pharmacy notifying patients that their prescriptions will take an additional day. SSH suggested adding this to the planned notice boards at reception No action required Ongoing SSH to talk to Kerry (who administers the notice boards) Date of next meeting: Tuesday 8 th December 2015-7.15pm at Moulsham Lodge Surgery. Please let PC have items for the agenda by Tuesday 01 st December.