Ridgacre House Surgery Patient Participation Group

Notes of a Meeting held on Monday 18th September 2017

Present: Janet Haines( Chair), Betty Cowley(Secretary), Arthur Haines,(Treasurer) Barbara Wilcox, Sandra Walker, Y. Meghani, A. Moore, L. Toft, M.Brancroft, D. Oliver, Jane Don, Dr.V. Manley , Julie Chilton (Practice Manager) Ian Middlemiss,(Busines Manager) Josie Smith( Asst. Practice Manager)

Item Note Action by 1 Introductions and Apologies.

Janet welcomed everyone to the meeting. Apologies : No apologies. Mr. Roy McNeil had tendered his resignation. He had not attended a meeting so far and now felt he was unable to be a part of the group because of family committments.

2 Notes of the meeting held on 20th November 2017 were approvoed.

3 Matters Arising There were no matters arising.

4. Items to be raised with the Practice *Jane asked how the new hospital referrral system was working.

*Janet raised the question of booking an appointment online. There were very few appointments available close to the date of booking or for future times.

* Halesowen have a health check available to 45-75 year olds run by Dudley Health Authority. Do we have a similar availability?

5 Report from GP Practice

*Dr. Manley said the referral system was working well. She felt the system ensured people were referred to the correct clinic. It was a pilot scheme for 15 months and was due to finish at Christmas, when it would be evaluated.

* Julie explained that appointments are put on at 8.15 and are held back for "that " day appointments. Dr. Manley said that Doctors had been on leave, some ill and the limitation of Consulting Rooms affected available appointments. There are now 15 Partners and almost 10,000 patients. *The question of health checks caused a debate but they are not offered at present as a general rule.

Dr. Manley brought up the question of when an ambulance has to be called to the surgery. They have had to wait 1/2 hours because the surgery have equipment and staff on site. The problem was where to put the patient. They could block a consulting room. She suggested that the patient could be put on a bed in the nurses room, the curtains drawn and the nurses could carry on with routine jobs to keep the flow of patients going. After a discussion the group felt that it would be appropriate to use the nurses room as long as the patient agreed and their privacy was respected, and they would be continually checked.

The question of when an accident occurs outside the surgery was raised. Dr. Manley said they can go out " as a good samaritan act" and there have been a few occasions when this has happened.

Staffing: Carol Penrose has left, Chris Byrne has joined the Practice (HCA). Karen Hancox , Practice Nurse at Nechells has left. New nurse, Angela Downer, will cover both sites. Dr. Natasha Dykes has joined the Practice for 4 months from August replacing Bridget Riley.

6 Chairpersons Report

The 3 Cross City Groups are merging and so it was a quiet period. 7 Dates for next years' meetings.

22.1.18 ; 19.3.18; 21.5.18; 23.7.18; 24.9.18; 26.11.18. 8. Development of Leaflet Outlining Role of the PPG

Janet asked for volunteers to form a sub committee to help with producing a leaflet. This item will be put on the next agenda. 9 Suggestion Box No suggestions.

. 10 Treasurer's Report Arthur reported that there had been no transactions since the last meeting so the amount in the "kitty" remained at £29.61. 11 AOB

Jane asked if the proposed on site pharmacy would be open to the general public. Ian replied that it would be but that the NHS hav e to approve the re- location from the Hagley Road and that planning permission had not yet been received.

Betty gave Ian the NAPP affiliation paperwork for completion. 13 Date and Time of the Next Meeting Monday 22nd January 2018 at the Annexe opposite Main Surgery at 3.00 pm

The meeting closed at 4.10 pm