Patient Participation Group Meeting Minutes – 13/06/24

PPG Meeting Minutes

Thursday 13th June

Chair: Lorna English (Quality Service Supervisor)

Attendees: John Smith, Pete, Norman, John, Marilyn, Tina

Apologies: L Watkins, A Hughes, J Bouche

Start Time: 13:00

End Time: 14:00

· Minutes from Last meeting- All members present agreed with the previous meeting minutes.

· Triage/ Accurx Update- We discussed the fact that at the previous meeting LE had outlined the plans for the introduction of the triage (pharmacy 1st process) and the Accurx link that has been added to the surgery’s website. The link allows patients to contact the surgery with non urgent clinical issues and potential admin queries, (for example, requesting their medical records.) LE explained that initially the forum had been introduced to allow patients to contact the surgery between 8am – 9am with the access being capped at 10 patients. However the time frame has now been increased slightly to 10:30am and as the patient awareness and demand increases the time frame and the capped number will also increase. LE informed the group that there will be a piece in the summer edition of the Woodhouse Warbler outlining the pharmacy 1st and Accurx to the patient’s. Therefore, we expect demand to increase following this and will act accordingly.

· Recruitment Update- LE explained that we currently had 4 Salaried GPs and 5 GP partners and that we were looking to recruit an additional salaried GP. LE shared that a female GP had been interviewed and that she was keen to join the practice but that we were awaiting confirmation of this. This opened up a discussion regarding appointment availability and the difficulty that patients are having accessing the surgery. NW explained that he had personally experienced this when trying to book an appointment with his wife- he explained that he had been on hold whilst also trying to book an appointment online. There were no appointments available by the

time NW had got through to the reception. LE did say that she understood the frustration and that this would be monitored as when covering the phones on several occasions there were appointments left and an empty call queue, (we discussed later on in the meeting the PPG assisting with some audits which will be really helpful.) LE again explained that she understood the frustrations and said that unfortunately it is difficult to meet patient demand; more houses are being built and unfortunately GP surgeries are not built in line with this. LE also outlined that the surgery’s Out of area patient protocol had recently changed. Patients that are out of the practice catchment area can no longer remain registered at the surgery and have been advised to register elsewhere. Historically patients signed an out of area agreement where they agreed that they could remain registered at the surgery but would NOT receive a home visit if requested. Currently 336 patients have been sent letters as a starting point in reducing the patient list.

· Telephone system/ telephone area in reception (Clearing of Notes) LE shared that unfortunately the scheduled date of Mid-May had been pushed back due to certain elements involved for installing the system. This will hopefully be rectified ASAP and LE will update. We discussed the importance of the reception team being focussed on answering the phones which LE acknowledged was not always the case. For this reason the team now has 4 reception team leads which monitor the call queue throughout the shift. The reason we require 4 is due to the length of the shifts (07:30-18:30/20:00) and also to allow cover across both sites. We are also working towards clearing a large space in the back office that currently acts as storage for patient notes. The notes are currently being removed if they have been scanned on electronically in line with the practice digitisation policy, or where they have not, they will be scanned on. This room will then be used as a telephone area where staff will be rotated to cover solely to just answer the phones.

· Uniform- thoughts- LE asked the group for their input regarding the staff having uniform. Management and the partners are keen to introduce a colour theme for the team so that they can be identified as belonging to an organisation. The team were all in agreement with this and gave their full support that staff should be wearing at least some type of uniform. They shared the thoughts that it looked smart and felt that maybe staff had been given too much choice previously. They rightly said that if staff were to work at Tesco or in a bank then they would be expected to wear uniform.

· Carers Day- Thoughts for any other Saturdays. We discussed the success of the carers day and the diabetes day last year and the fact that the surgery were looking to run with similar events this year. NW shared that the diabetes day was well attended and 160+ patients presented. We also discussed the possibility of holding a Dementia/

Alzheimer’s morning and explore the societies that can attend. LE will look in to the organisation of this. Weight management was also discussed in that holding a morning to promote health eating and weight management with services such as slimming world being available.

· Infection Control Audit: LE shared that the surgery had an IPC audit scheduled for Tuesday 11th June. In preparation for this Holly, herself and a member of the nursing team had attempted to prep the surgery. Initial thoughts were that it would involve stock checking (dates etc) and a general tidy, however, it soon came to light that the state of the rooms in terms of cleanliness were not of an acceptable standard at all. Holly and LE spent hours scrubbing away at windows etc. This has been raised by Holly to the head of the cleaning team and questions asked such as why are the cleaning schedules and recommendations not being adhered to. This is not to pass blame to the cleaning team but we do need to see improvements throughout the surgery and these then need to be maintained, and not just for the audit.

· Chair (process)- The group are aware that Andrew will not be re-joining the group as chair, and that he has taken some time to look after his own health. The group joined LE in wishing Andrew well. The group shared that the usual process was for those that were interested in chairing to express their interest and a decision made by the group. It was agreed that LE would use the minutes/ email communication to ask for those interested to express this, and that this will then be discussed at the next meeting in August.

· AOB-

· Pete discussed the issues with the hearing aid batteries- LE said that she would check whether these could be collected from BF as she appreciated that travelling to Kings Mill was not ideal. There is a service in woodhouse but this is currently only available once a month. Peter Sutcliffe was going to raise this in terms of funding and LE will chase up any developments with this.

· MB asked whether any patients had experienced any issues with Oakwood pharmacy as she had heard of multiple issues. The time frame when ordering currently stands at 4-5 days and at times patients are left without their medication. LE said that she would raise this with Brigitte our clinical pharmacist who is assisting in addressing any concerns that patients have regarding the pharmacy- this is not to work against the pharmacy but to ensure patient safety is being monitored.

· LE asked whether the group would feel comfortable assisting her with some audits- almost like a “mystery shopper” approach to contacting the surgery. This would be to monitor things such as (and any others you can think of):

– Access to the surgery- how long were you in the call queue

– Were you able to get an appointment- were alternatives offered

– Was your call triaged or were you either given an appointment straight away or just told that there were no appointments.

– When calling the main line to order a repeat medication were you advised to call the prescription line or was this query dealt with.

This is not to catch any of the staff out but it enables management to get a better overview of what is happening with the calls etc alongside the call queues. LE will create the appropriate documents and bring to the next meeting. The team were in agreement with this.

Date of Next Meeting: Thursday 15th August at 13:00