maple surgery

patient participation group

minutes for the ordinary meeting of 25 September 2013 (HTML Version)

Attendance

Executive Committee Members: Patricia Daniels (PD), John Doland (JD), Doris Halls (DoH), Graham Hardy (GH), David Harper (DaH), Joyce Jarvis (JJ), Nick Martensz (NM), Josephine Powell (JP), Chris Stannard (CS), L.M. Stockman (LMS)

Emilio Ceraudo (EC) and Anthony Mitchell (AM) were absent with apologies.

Surgery Representatives: [none]

Fiona McGlashan (FM) was absent with apologies.

Approval of minutes and matters arising

The minutes from the meeting of 28 August 2013 were approved.

Surgery report

JD read the surgery report provided by Fiona McGlashan:

DNAs: We had 97 missed appointments in August so the situation is not improving. We are in discussions with other practices in the Malling Group regarding their handling of DNAs and will be reviewing our DNA policy in due course.
Surgery refurbishment: Serco are continuing to maintain the building and have just inspected the roof with a view to repair, so it is unlikely that a re-build is likely in the near future.
Patient leaflet: Thank you for all your amendments and a particular thanks to Ms Stockman for updating the leaflet. Once final amendments have been made the leaflet will be available in the Surgery and given to all new patients.
Flu clinic: Saturday, 12th October. Eligible patients are being invited by text message or letter.
Extended hours: From 1st November the Surgery will be offering extended hours on Monday and Wednesday mornings and Tuesday and Thursday evenings (subject to the availability of GPs).
Health Awareness Events: This was discussed at our last Clinical Meeting and all our GPs are in agreement with the 'Healthy Living/Lifestyle' theme. They are happy to be involved and are already thinking about possible presentations and other speakers they might invite!!

Annual flu vaccinations

Several members of the committee voiced concern that they had not yet received their letters regarding the flu clinic, which was now only two and a half weeks away.

JP said that she had received a text message from the surgery about the flu clinic.

Action: DaH to contact the surgery to ask when the letters would be sent out.

Missed appointments (DNAs)

The committee noted the continuing high rate of DNAs in August, and agreed that it would be helpful to have a more detailed breakdown of the figures, as discussed at previous meetings.

LMS reported that she had been told that another local surgery also has a problem with DNAs, and that their solution was to overbook, in the same way that airlines do, on the assumption that a percentage of patients will fail to attend. However, this strategy leads to serious problems if a GP is absent and/or if all of the patients with appointments actually turn up.

CS commented that he knew of a clinic that charges a £25 penalty for failure to attend an appointment. LMS said that it was difficult to see how a penalty payment system could be implemented. DaH said that this went against the principle of the NHS providing care that is free at the point of delivery.

There was concern that some scheduled appointments with Dr Irwin had recently been cancelled at short notice by the surgery, and it was suggested that the committee should ask the surgery how many appointments they cancel each month due to clinical staff being unavailable.

Action: DaH to ask Lesley Davis/FM for a detailed breakdown of the DNA figures for May to August, and also to ask about the number of appointments cancelled by the surgery.

Comments on the patient brochure

DaH reported that several members of the committee had provided detailed feedback on the draft patient brochure, and this had been collated and sent to FM, who had replied to enquire whether LMS might be willing to update the brochure.

He said that LMS had already prepared a version of the brochure incorporating the feedback, and this had been sent to FM for comment.

There was agreement that the committee should ask to see the final version of the brochure before it was printed.

Action: DaH to contact FM to arrange for the final version of the brochure to be circulated to the committee prior to printing.

Ideas for participation in next year's village fête

A number of ideas were suggested, including:

A contest to guess the number of sweets in a jar.
An 'ideas tree' where people can post suggestions and questions.
An exercise bike for people to try out.
A body fat composition monitor.
Measuring people's blood pressure (but are there medical ethics implications?).
Letting kids listen to their own heartbeat through a stethoscope.
Inviting someone from the Tesco pharmacy to give advice on prescriptions (although there was concern about allowing the event to be used by Tesco for publicity).
Promoting the health walks.

Action: Committee members to continue to think of ideas.

Ideas for the next Health Awareness Events

The committee was encouraged by the very positive response from the surgery.

Discussion was deferred to the next meeting, when surgery representatives would be present.

Any other business

Health Hub

NM noted that there was now a 'Health Hub' noticeboard in the surgery waiting room, with much interesting information.

CS suggested that the surgery should also make this information available as leaflets, so that patients could take it home.

Noticeboards

JP voiced concern that some displays, including the health walks noticeboard, were positioned very close to the door of one of the consulting rooms. She said that she had been aware, whilst reading one of the displays, that she could hear the conversation that was going on in the consulting room. She felt embarrassed about this, and had moved away from the noticeboard.

Action: The positioning of the noticeboards would be raised at the next meeting.

Next meeting

The meeting adjourned at 7:40 p.m.

The next ordinary meeting of the Executive Committee of the PPG will take place at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, 30 October 2013, in the TNT Room at Bar Hill Church. Tea and coffee will be served before the meeting, from 6:00 p.m.