OLD LEAKE MEDICAL CENTRE (OLMC)
PATIENT PRACTICE GROUP (PPG) MEETING
10 JULY 2013

The meeting opened at 2.02 pm.

Present: Mrs S Chambers, Mrs J Lote, Mrs N Evison, Mrs J Albon-Smith (present from 2.05 pm to meeting closure), Mr A Clark, Mrs B Forth, Mr M Jaques, Mr T Jarvis, Mrs S Martin, Miss P Smolenaars and Mrs S Bernadin. [Mrs P Ashton – Minute Taker.] 

1.	Apologies

Apologies were received from Mr S Maude, Mr G Chilton & Mr M Caukwell.

2.	Approval of Minutes of the Previous Meeting

The minutes of the previous meeting, held on 15 May 2013, were approved un-amended.

3.	Matters Arising

The matters arising from the previous meeting were listed within the agenda for this meeting.

4.	Health Trainer (HT)

Mrs Siobhan Bernadin was introduced to the members and was invited to speak about herself, her role as a HT and about her work in relation to that role.  Mrs Bernadin said she is a Registered Patient of OLMC who resides in Wrangle and one of the Boston Team of HTs responsible for the locality.  She also handed out leaflets to the members for their further information.  Clients can either refer themselves to the HT or by health professionals. They are assessed to ascertain health-related goal(s) whereupon a plan is made in relation to behavioural changes to achieve the goal(s).  Each patient can have up to 6 meetings with the HTs, the frequency of those meeting being varied and flexible.  Mrs Bernadin said the role of the HTs is to work with clients as motivators.  

Mrs Bernadin said the most common referrals to the HT Team relate to smoking cessation, weight loss and exercise but said they are also able to deal with other matters such as problems with disability, socialisation and mental health.  

Mrs Chambers asked Mrs Bernadin for her suggestions for making contact with clients and asked if she intended introducing herself to patients in the Waiting Rooms.  Mrs Bernadin said this method of introduction had been trialled in other Surgeries but had not paid dividends as the contact prior to the patient being called to their appointment was very limited.  She explained that the Liquorpond Street Surgery staff allocated a room to her and said she would usually attend on the days when an Anticoagulant Clinic or Mother and Baby Clinic were in progress in order to be directly available to clients.  Mrs Chambers explained that unfortunately this would not be possible at OLMC due to lack of rooms.

Mrs Bernadin said she would like to come in to talk to the clinical staff of OLMC and Mrs Chambers noted this.  Arrangements were made for the collection of HT referrals.  Mrs Bernadin asked the members’ permission to remain at the meeting until the conclusion and this was approved.

5.	Butterfly Hospice

Mrs Evison said she visited the Butterfly Hospice with a group of other people and said she found this very positive.  Mrs Evison said their group was shown around and commented the Hospice was lovely.  She explained how a Bereavement Service is being built up and various groups of people are being asked to put forward suggestions and personal issues.  Mrs Evison said once these are received the Medical and Nursing Staff of the Hospice will put these together, make out a report and will then put a plan together.

6.	PPG Noticeboard

Mr Clark had prepared draft notice board documents for discussion, which were circulated prior to the meeting. Mr Jarvis pointed out one of the e-mail addresses on the existing notice was incorrect.  No other proposed changes were made and the documents will be amended in accordance with the decisions made.  Mrs Chambers will laminate the documents once finalised.

Mr Clark said that finance did not appear on the existing noticeboard documents which he believed was an intentional, agreed omission due to the newness of the group when the terms of reference were written.  Mrs Chambers said a few donations had been received at the Evening Educational Sessions.  Potential fundraising ideas were discussed and Mrs Evison said £3,000 had been raised by the Stickney surgery PPG.  Fund raising was discussed generally with subjects including Tombola Stalls, Keep Fit classes, Buy-A-Brick/Tablet Bottle etc.  Mrs Albon-Smith mentioned an imminent room vacancy at the Wrangle Chapel School Room.  Most of the suggestions involved the availability of a venue and staffing/assistance with organisation and manning.

The members said they felt people are more inclined to donate funds where the target is known and said that some thought should be given to what the target will be, e.g. a particular piece of equipment.  

7.	Feedback from Patients

a)	System Problems
Problems were reported with the telephone system at OLMC.  Mrs Chambers confirmed OLMC staff are aware of the matter which has been dealt with.  She said a problem had also arisen in relation to Doctors’ appointments and said again this has been rectified.  Mr Jarvis said when he telephoned the OLMC recently the call rang out for a prolonged period without message or answer.  Mrs Chambers apologised for this, said no similar complaints had been received in this regards and suggested it might have been a one-off occurrence.  She suggested if this happens again it may be advantageous to terminate the call and dial again.

Mr Jarvis said he had noticed the date of the last training day still features on repeat prescription slips even though this date has passed.  Mrs Lote apologised for this, said this is something she usually dealt with but had not done as yet.  Mr Jarvis suggested the Dispensing System should update automatically and Mrs Lote and Mrs Chambers said this was not the case at OLMC as the System does not have the capability.  Mrs Lote said she would carry out the necessary manual update.

b)	Medication
Mrs Evison said whilst in the OLMC Waiting Rooms she recently had twice encountered problems involving patients experiencing delays in receiving their medication, both of which were due to Doctors not carrying out the prescribing/issuing procedure promptly/fully.  Mrs Chambers said she would bring this to the Doctors’ attention.  She also emphasised that if someone did not received their medication/script within 20 minutes they should speak to a Receptionist to check all was in hand.

c)	Family & Friends Questionnaire
Mrs Chambers was pleased to report the number of negative responses was considerably less than the positive.  She read out the negative comments and a selection of the positive ones.

8.	2013 Draft Survey

Mrs Chambers had circulated the draft survey prior to the meeting, which was as a result of the last meeting and consultation with the virtual group. A suggestion from a vPPG member was that subjects that we cannot do anything about, e.g. the car park should not be included as patients would interpret this as nothing being done about a subject they’d raised. Instead we should ask open ended questions so people have the freedom to write suggestions and comments. The draft survey circulated was approved but the members felt that a question regarding fundraising should be added.

Mrs Chambers said she would amend the draft copy and then send it to the virtual group for their comments.  Once the Survey document is finalised it will be available to patients during August, September and October 2013.  It is hoped that the longer circulation period will result in the return of a higher number of completed Surveys.  

9.	Premises Update

Mrs Chambers referred to the article that appeared in the Boston Target Newspaper and said publication of the piece had come as a surprise.  She said Dr Bull had written to various people, including Mr Mark Simmons MP, in relation to the matter of new premises.  It seemed the matter had come to the attention of the newspaper who had, contacted Dr Bull.  In turn Dr Bull had referred them to Boston Mayflower.  She said she understood the newspaper staff had spoken to Boston Mayflower who had not at that time had the opportunity to speak to their residents.  No notice had been provided to anyone at either OLMC or Boston Mayflower that the piece was to be published.  

Mrs Chambers said that Mr Mark Simmons has responded to Dr Bull’s letter informing it is his intention to write to the Secretary of State, the Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP.  Developments will be reported back to the PPG.

Mrs Evison said she had received a letter from the Eastville, Midville and New Leake Group Parish Council as they had received letters from Dr Bull in relation to new OLMC premises.  

Several patients had felt it would be advantageous to present a petition to Parliament to highlight the strength of support for new premises and Mr Jaques had drafted a document in this respect.  The narrative of the document was discussed and as the position has moved on since the last meeting, in that it is now almost impossible for the new premises to be sited where previously planned, the wording at the head of the document was amended accordingly.  Once finalised the petition documents will be available for signature by patients in appropriate establishments, such as OLMC, local Post Offices, public houses etc.  One suggestion was that the PPG members should write a letter to accompany the petition when it is presented.  Mrs Evison said she would draft this letter.

Members asked Mrs Chambers the reason given for refusal to the move to the proposed premises.  She explained that unfortunately the proposed move had come along at what proved to be the wrong time.  She said PCTs (Primary Care Trusts) had very recently been replaced by CCG (Clinical Commissioning Groups) with the various PCT staff members moving to other jobs in different departments of the CCGs.  She said NHS England control the purse strings for premises developments which are overseen by Local Area Teams.  These teams do not yet know the extent of their budgets.  

10.	Any Other Business

a)	Improvements for the CQC (Care Quality Commission)
Mrs Chambers said plans are in place to bring the premises up to scratch as far as possible.  Plans have finally been received from the Architect and it is foreseen the development of the Nurses’ Room will result in a state of the art facility.  The room currently referred to as the Small Nurses’ Room will become a Dirty Utility Room which will satisfy infection control criteria.  It is anticipated in most cases the new room will be staffed by just one nurse with others working in a Consulting Room.  At certain times, for instance for Anticoagulation Clinics, two members of staff will work in the new room.  Work will start immediately after the Anticoagulation Clinic scheduled for the morning of 26 July 2013 and is expected to last 2 weeks.  She said steps are being taken to keep disruption to a minimum.

b)	NHS Patient Advocacy
Mrs Chambers mentioned a service-provider named POhWER who provide a Patient Advocacy service, helping patients with resolutions and complaints.  She showed the members a leaflet and said a website is available to view.  She asked the members if they would like a representative of that service to be invited to the next PPG meeting and this was approved.

c)	Number of Members

A further discussion took place in relation to the number of members of the PPG Committee and it was decided that the maximum number should remain at 12.

d)	Phlebotomy Clinics
A member asked whether phlebotomy could be carried out on a Saturday morning and was informed this would unfortunately not be possible for several reasons which were described.

e)	Evening Educational Sessions
Requests had been received that the start time should be returned to the original 6.30 pm from the current 6.00 pm.  This was approved with the change coming into force in the New Year as this year’s events have already been advertised with the earlier start time.

f)	Nurse Practitioner
Mrs Albon-Smith commended the Nurse Practitioner at the OLMC, saying she had found her to be very efficient and professional.  She said it would be nice if she had a daily surgery.

11.	Date of Next Meeting

The date/time of the next meeting, which will be the Annual General Meeting, will be Wednesday 11 September 2013 at 2.00 pm.

Close

The meeting closed at 3.34 pm.