PPG: Meeting Minutes 10th March 2022

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Name	Organisation/Representative	Initials
Sheila Pitt	PPG Chair	BP
Breda Pooke	PPG Vice Chair	SP
Fay Godby	PPG Member	FG
Theresa Houghton	PPG Member	TH
Margaret Coombs	PPG Member	MC
Neville Hudson	PPG Member	NH
Frances Westerman	PPG Member	FW
Karen Wilshaw	PPG Member	FW
Andrew Walsh	BMC Clinical Pharmacist/Lead	AW
Clare Catchpole	BMC Clinical Administration Manager	CC
Kelly Evans – Note Taker	Invicta Health CIC	KE

Agenda Items

Welcome

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

Apologies

• Christine March (CM), William Wraith (WW), Katy James (KJ), Brian White (BW), Elizabeth Carlton (EC), Ann Bay (AB), Jenny Wilkinson (JW), Evelyn Tanner (ET), Daniel O’Connell (DOC), Fay Stevens (FS).

Minutes of Previous Meeting and Update

• The minutes from the meeting held on the 20th January 2022 were a true reflection.
• ‘Legs Matter’: nursing team have received the pack. Additional training arranged for nursing staff. Lymphoedema difficult to manage in primary care and specialist clinics are already in place (secondary care). Currently strengthening ties with lymphoedema teams.
• National NHS Structure of CCG to change to PCN in July 2022. LB to arrange representative from CCG to attend next PPG (May 2022) to explain the changes and how to lobby/effect changes to the framework. NH concerned about the lack of input from primary care providers.
• SP commented how effective the frailty team (who introduced themselves at the last meeting ) are. The service for patients and their family / carer is timely , caring and provides links to other necessary services such as the ART and Community Nurses.
• Umbrella stand to be installed in reception for patients to safely store walking aids whilst sanitising hands.

BMC Updates

Staffing

• GP and remote cover has increased. Dr Huggins has increased days at surgery. Dr Osman will return to the surgery for 3 days per week from April 2022. Dr Pal and Dr Wyatt are two of the regular locums. Regular locums used for continuity of care. Dr Osman and Huggins will share clinical lead responsibilities.
• Query raised on whether ‘Named GP’ would be reinitiated. Process would not work at BMC due to pooled list agreement in place. Patients can request to see specific clinicians.
• Question asked regarding the processing of urgent clinic letters. These are driven by clinical urgency and are forwarded to the relevant staff based on its content. NH raised the issue with a clinical letter being addressed to a clinician who has left the practice. Noted issue with the hospital system and no link with the GP system (EMIS). Dr Osman or Huggins can be used.
• ‘GP’ not to be used when describing a clinician as the clinical staff is formed of doctors, nurses, pharmacists, physician associates, and paramedics.
• Concern raised regarding not seeing a regular clinician. This is due to patients being directed to appropriate clinician for intervention. BMC is the first practice in East Kent that uses a multidisciplinary led service.
• Drop in/pop-ups to be considered in Birchington for specific conditions/problems. BP to explore and lead. This will form an element of the education in our workplan.
• Student GP doctor tenure completed. New student GP doctor will commence shortly. Issues with room capacity resulting in some services being remote.
• Student nurses due to return.
• CC introduction to PPG. CC is the new Clinical administration manager. Current admin staffing issues: 1 prescription clerk to reduce hours. Pending confirmation of budget increase for reception in order to increase staffing. · Nursing team fully staffed and new ACP/N have settled in well.
• Positive feedback on the efficiency and professionalism of the new frailty teams.

Friends and Family Testing

• Data will be feedback at the next Q&A meeting.
• Issues with EMIS login details (due to end of year updates) has affected FFT systems. Expectation that this will be working by April 2022.

Covid Vaccination Update

• Spring booster campaign due to start from 27th March – 30th June 2022. Eligible for 75+ and immunosuppressed. 5-11yr booster to also commence shortly. Eligible patients will be contacted by NHS via text. Awaiting further instructions from NHS England but BMC currently looking at housebound patients.
• Moderna and Pfizer will be offered and delivered at a vaccination centre.
• Core team at each vaccination site made up of volunteers and retirees. This to prevent GP staff being used and affecting the GP service.

Quality & Assurance

Dashboard

Agreed with BPC that a dashboard should go ahead. Volunteers required to take this forward and decide on meaningful information. Consideration of traffic light system. BP and SP to contact the PPG wider group for volunteers.

Telephone and Appointment Wait Times

Telephone audit performed by SP , DOC and Lucy. Listened to random selected telephone calls answered by a range of receptionists. Reception staff dealt well with complex calls. One reception staff’s conduct has been highlighted and current being performance managed. SP noted that key information is not available for staff at the desk (numbers). This is currently being rectified. Audits will continue.

Additional training has been arranged for staff: ‘Handling difficult conversations’. Staff are aware that all calls are recorded.

Complaints

3 complaints which were assigned to Dr J Hill were not managed before his departure. 6 open complaints currently (including 3 originally assigned to Dr Hill). Backup process developed to prevent future occurrences.

Other

• Muinat will be the safeguarding lead from March.
• QoF: Pending new targets. Current issues with searches not recognising ‘declines’ of immunisations (for children).

Meeting between BMC / PPG and Parish councillors

• 3 separate meetings have occurred at the surgery.
• NH raised comments from councillor’s post meeting:
  • BPC is a point of contact for patients in the village who do not necessarily bring issues direct to the PPG.
  • BPC have requested that a bi-annual meeting takes places with the team to discuss complaints.
  • Noted issues with social media dialogue in the past but this has significantly improved. Problems with dialogue (social) in the past but this has now been curtailed.
• Agenda items set by the BPC were the same as items discussed in PPG meeting.
• Consideration of improved communication pathways i.e. sharing of meeting minutes or becoming virtual PPG members. Isolated meetings with no background would be of no value and prevents staff from their clinical duties.
• Issues with the practice should be raised either with the PPG or via the webpage or the practice manager. Complaints follow a strict process, and all complaints are treated equally.
• PPG is the voice of the patients, and everyone should feel comfortable raising their issues directly with the practice.
• KE to add redacted minutes to the PPG webpage

Issues raised by members

Receipt of mail procedures –how is mail prioritised/categorised/ actions identified etc

• Mail is received different ways (email, personal letters, royal mail). All correspondence initially dealt with by admin team. Document is date stamped, scanned onto patients notes, and coded (which assists with audits and searches). Staff are trained and are aware of priority issues and these are forwarded to a clinician to manage. ‘Urgents’ are sent to the duty doctor. Work is managed, actioned, and ‘cleared’ on a daily basis.
• Hospital clinical letter delays are due to typing delays at the hospital.

Hard copies of letters from patients – what happens to them?

• All letters from patients are now added to the patient notes. Complaints letters are saved onto a separate secure system.

Interpretation of blood test results

• Secretarial staff reviews each blood test results. Range is listed along with the result and whether it is out of range. Clinicians comment on results that are out of range but are reviewed holistically.

Request to contact surgery via post

• Patients are only contacted by post if they have not answered their phone or not responded to a voicemail or text message.

Any Other Business

Car Park

Staff vehicles have been damaged recently. Practice is considering installing a barrier to separate from staff and patient/visitor parking. PPG to be understanding that, on occasions, the patient/visitor car park will be full and the staff may have spaces which can potentially see a rise in complaints. All in agreement.

Vaccination and Imms – local promotion

Likely no vacc or imm income into the practice this financial year (2021/2022). BMC has asked to PPG to assist with promotion of vaccination (e.g. mother and baby groups). Currently, all children have been immunised but, due to coding issues, children whose parents have declined immunisation are still showing as active. 95% need to be vaccinated before end of March otherwise no payment will be issued. Only 1% of practices nationally have reached the target.

Other

• Request for AW to provide a piece on medication review for the next PPG newsletter.
• Query regarding the review dates on repeat prescription. Medication reviews dates do not necessarily need an appointment. Some medications (normally preventative) may require a blood pressure or test. New system in place to review the dates. ‘Overdue’s’ have significantly reduced since new system active.
• NHS is not post-Covid at this point in time.
• Sadly KeJ passed away. PPG send deepest condolences and sympathies to KJ.

Date of Next Meeting

• 12th May 2022, AGM. Formal voting for the chair and co-chair will take place. Expressions of interest to be emailed prior to the meeting.
• Meeting closed at 1715hrs.