PPG: Meeting Minutes 13th July 2023

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Name	Organisation/Representative	Initials
Sheila Pitt	PPG Co-Chair	SP
Don Bay	PPG Member	DB
Ann Bay	PPG Member	AB
Colin Brown	PPG Member	CB
Elizabeth Carlton	PPG Member	EC
Neville Hudson	PPG Member	NH
Fay Godby	PPG Member	FG
Theresa Houghton	PPG Member	TH
Frances Westerman	PPG Member	FW
Brenda Garroway	PPG Member	BG
Stephen Crump	PPG Member	SC
William Wraith	PPG Member	WW
Brian White	PPG Member	BW
Andy Walsh	BMC Lead Pharmacist	AW
Karen Wilshaw	BMC Nurse Lead	KW
Daniel O’Connell	BMC Practice Manager	DOC
Kelly Evans – Note Taker	Invicta Health CIC, Corporate Affairs Manager	KE

Agenda Items

Welcome

• SP welcomed attendees and outlined the agenda items and topics for discussion.

Apologies

• Breda Pooke (BP), Katy Thomas (KT), Tracey Moon (TM), Margaret Coombes (MC), Christine March (CM), Stephen March (SM)

Notes and matters arising from 11th May 2023

• Minutes were a true reflection of meeting.
• Action update: Veterans accreditation is on hold due to prioritising the disease management project.   There is an assigned nurse who will be leading the Veterans Accreditation and will work directly with the relevant association.

BMC Updates

Dashboard

• Nil updates for this month. 

Staffing

• 1 secretary leaving.  Advert to be displayed imminently.  Staff will cover roles to ensure there is no gap in the service.  Overtime will be offered to other Invicta Health Medical Secretaries to prevent any backlogs. 
• New band 5 nurse who recently joined has now left (due to personal reasons).   

New Friends and Family System Feedback

• Nil FFT data.  DOC will share information with Chairs once received.  Feedback from FFT provided by NHS is used to make changes to the practice. 

PPG Updates

Patient Information Leaflet

Minor typo amendments to be rectified on the leaflet.  KE to produce this in leaflet style.  This will allow the font to be increased to assist with accessibility measures. Accessible version to be added to the webpage. 

Quality & Assurance

• Local meeting held. Nil matters arising apart from complaints regarding attitude  of some reception staff. This is being addressed by the assistant practice manager. Due to current work pressures the programme of meetings has been differed (bi-monthly) in order for actions to be completed. 

Website Volunteers

• Website audit is required to be undertaken by PPG member(s). Audit will include a sense check, and review if links on webpage work. TH volunteered to undertake this. SC noted that information on the screens in the reception area is out of date.  DOC to review. 

Flu Clinics

• Clinics will take place on 16th September and 7th October from 0830-1400hrs. The set-up will be similar to last year with local volunteer groups assisting with car parking. TH and EC volunteered for 7th October. The ramp for the back entrance will be replaced with a concrete version.  Clear yellow marking also to be included for visually impaired patient/carers.  This will be installed before 16th September. Note: Positive comments from staff who did it last year.  DOC to discuss with building landlords on having specialist pavement blocks at entrance of surgery for our visually imparted patients. 

Education sessions

• Women’s Health session was recently held.  Low numbers noted but patients who attended found it very useful. Will re-run the program and increased advertising of the sessions is required.  PPG members asked to share information via word of mouth and advertise in local pharmacies/notice boards. KE to assist with developing the poster. Consideration of an open-day type of event with the option of asking charities to attend. It was noted that the new reception staff were unaware of the process of signing patients up to the education sessions.  DOC will raise this with the reception team. A dementia session will be held in September.  Ray Hollands (external) will be invited to assist with hosting. KW to discuss with the nursing team.

Communications

• BPC thanked for allowing the PPG to have a regular ‘piece’ in the parish magazine for free. A review of the information shared is required: will continue to add staff timetable, opening hours, education sessions, and ‘day in the life of’.   Request to have pictures of clinical staff to bridge the technical gap between telephone/face to face appointments.  Profiles of clinical staff which will include their clinical interest and background. ‘Helpful Hints’ and descriptions on why it is not always appropriate to see a doctor instead of other clinical staff. Poster to be created for reception with helpful NHS links. 

Issues raised by members

Social media comments regarding attitude of receptionist

• Member of staff directly responded to the comment made on social media. All staff have been reminded of the Social Media policy. 

Percentage of F2F appointments at BMC vs K&M

• Data produced by K&M shared with all.  BMC comparison is slightly below the KPI’s  Query over how the KPI’s are created/based on. Data shows an increase in availability in all areas (F2F/telephone/home visits). This information is in the public domain as should be challenged as  this may affect  the reputation of the service.  

Process for recording changes to patient notes

• This is dependent on how the information was recorded.  Surgery-based changes can be made by the ‘author’. Information from external sources (e.g hospitals) will need to be changed by the originator.

Refusal of providing an appointment to a newly registered patient

• No new patient appointments are offered and care will continue as per previous surgery.   There can be a delay in receiving full information from previous surgery and this is slowly improving. Patients will be able to book an appointment for an ongoing condition once all records have been received.  This is in line with patient safety standards. For urgent issues, the patient can be seen when an appointment is available. 

AOB and Meetings Management

Timeline for results from hospitals 

• X-rays: 2 weeks. 
• CT/MRI: 4-6 weeks

Accessibility for visually impaired patients when attending an appointment

• Issues with clinicians collecting visually impaired patients and not directing them where to sit in the consultation room.  Clinicians are aware of our visually impaired patients (alerts on the main screen). DOC to perform an audit. 

Guest speakers at future PPG meetings

• All agreed for a member of the finance team to attend to provide an overview on how funding flows through the NHS. 

Patient Survey

• The local PCN will be issuing a patient survey with a focus on patient access. Request for 5 yes/no questions to be supplied to the Chair.

Post-hospital discharge care

• Patients who experience a fracture but are otherwise well will not come under frailty on their discharge.  Their post-hospital discharge care will be managed by the Immediate Care Management Team which is run by nurses and occupations therapists. 

Awareness Days

• Cancer awareness day will be taking place on 22nd July at the Holy Trinity Church in Margate.

Other

• BMC team thanked for the collaborative working with the PPG. 

Date of Next Meeting

• 14th September 2023
• 9th November 2023
• 11th January 2024
• 14th March 2024