| home | meetings | events | miscellanea | contacts |
| 2012 |
Executive Committee Members: Emilio Ceraudo (EC), John Doland (JD), David Harper (DH), Terri Pope (TP), Chris Stannard (CS), L.M. Stockman (LMS)
Joyce Jarvis (JJ) was absent with apologies.
Surgery Representatives: Trish Hawitt Palmer (THP)
Jenny Moyes (JM) was absent with apologies.
Josephine Powell (JP) joined the Committee.
The minutes from the meeting of 30 November 2011 were approved. DH agreed to chair the meeting in the absence of both a chairman and vice-chairman.
DH was unable to get the Chairman's Annual Report submitted to the Bar Hill News in time for publication in the new year.
Action: DH will submit the Annual Report in time for the March issue.
DH invoiced THP for the registration of the group's domain name for the past two years.
Action: THP will action it promptly.
LMS has made some new posters for the surgery which are already in use. She also put together a recruitment leaflet which she distributed to the group for discussion. It was generally agreed that the leaflet was a good idea and a few minor changes were suggested.
Action: LMS will redraft the leaflet and send it to THP for printing.
With the resignation of last year's chairman and vice-chairman, there are vacancies which need to be filled. None present were keen to take on the responsibilities permanently so LMS suggested that the chairman serve a shorter term. THP followed up with the suggestion that everyone take turns. CS volunteered to chair the next two meetings.
At the last meeting it was decided that 'the elderly and their care' would be the topic of the next Health Awareness Event and that it might take place in the afternoon rather than in the evening. THP said that Dr Emma Tiffen would be a possible speaker and that it would be a good idea to invite representatives from the Alzheimer's Society to talk about dementia, memory loss, early symptoms, etc. CS enquired as to whether any of the practice nurses specialised in care/concerns of the elderly and THP said no. CS also mentioned that the talk should include information on benefits available to the elderly and their carers. He also suggested inviting pharmacist Jeremy Lieu who could give advice on alternatives to tablets which many elderly people have difficulty swallowing. JP asked about what provisions were in place for repeat prescriptions, particularly for the elderly. THP wondered if Tesco delivered and CS confirmed that they did. He then suggested that Sophie Ward (who handles prescriptions at the surgery) might come along to explain how the repeat and batch prescription system worked. TP wanted to know if the talk was being aimed at the elderly or at their carers? THP said that it should include both groups.
DH then brought up the question of logistics.
Action: THP will talk to Dr Tiffen to get her opinion on dates and times and then contact CS so that he can reserve the church hall.
Action: Deferred to the next meeting.
There are new posters up in the surgery and the leaflets will be ready for printing by the end of the week. CS suggested that there may be local groups that could be approached about having a representative on the Committee.
Action: LMS will send the completed leaflet to THP for printing. THP will distribute them in a number of places, including the surgery, the library and Tesco pharmacy.
THP said that Dr Gysbert Fourie would be attending next month's meeting. He has suggested that the monthly surgery article in the Bar Hill News contain more news items and not just facts and figures. LMS suggested that the article might include a short biography about a different doctor or nurse each month, highlighting their training or specialities.
THP introduced the idea of the Patient Reference Group, a new initiative in the health service. Its main aim is to reach out to patients that may not be well-represented by other means:
The PPG may well serve as the basis for the PRG.
How do you find these under-represented groups of patients? A mail shot is potentially very expensive. EC said that he could drop leaflets through letterboxes in the village, covering a different section every time. THP is going to put something on the new surgery web site and also the surgery's pages on the main NHS web site. She wondered if the PRG could be a 'virtual group' with all activities taking place online (email and web). CS asked if the surgery had email addresses for new patients. THP said that they had some and were asking patients to update their records to include things like mobile phone numbers and email addresses. The surgery will soon move to a system that will allow them to contact patients via email or SMS.
Reaching patients who don't often visit the surgery is a problem. JP suggested putting out leaflets in a variety of places, including local groups. Getting a PRG up and running may well help with PPG recruitment.
CS asked about patient numbers. THP said that total numbers were pretty much static. Although there was an inflow of new patients, because of the transient nature of much of the Bar Hill population, established patients are often moving out of the area.
THP also reported that Dr Anthony Ng would be leaving the surgery later this year but that they were hopeful of replacing him with someone equally talented. Because the surgery in Bar Hill had a bad reputation when the maple surgery first took over, they've had some problems with doctor recruitment but that situation is improving. The existing staff is very strong and have a broad range of skills to offer the patients of the surgery. The doctors are all very committed to improving the practice for the benefit of the patients.
CS asked for dates of future meetings so that he can reserve the Octagon. Like last year, the July meeting will have to be moved from the last Wednesday of the month due to a scheduling conflict.
The meeting adjourned at 7:35 p.m.
The next meeting of the Executive Committee of the PPG will take place at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, 29 February 2012, in the Octagon. Tea and coffee will be served before the meeting, from 6:00 p.m.
Copyright ©2012 by the maple surgery patient participation group
Last updated on 1 March 2012 by the Webmaster