Mersea Road Doctors Surgery

Patient Group Minutes – 9 February 2012 : 6.30pm 272a Mersea Road

Attendees:- Nicky Young (Practice Manager), Dr Simon Stacey, Dr Sharon Brayley, Terry Sutton, Ray Whiting, Rupert Edwards, Judith Vanstone, Fred Harvey, Dave Harris, Elizabeth Bezzant, Merl Johnson

Apologies:- Sue Amos, Alice Harper

General Update New People : Doctors Dr Sharon Brayley joined the surgery at the beginning of January 2012 – replacing Dr Jonathan Gatland. Sharon brings with her a wealth of experience and will be a great asset to the Practice.

Emergency Care Practitioner (ECP) In April Darren Johnson will join the clinical team. He will be a bit like a Nurse Practitioner in that he will see all minor illnesses; coughs, colds, sore throats etc.

Registrars Dr Mary Chesterman has moved on to her next placement. Dr Imtiaz Hussain commenced in January 2012. Dr James Mudeke will stay with us for another six months.

Reception Elizabeth, Brenda, and Chris will all be retiring at the end of March 2012. Emma, Claire B and Lisa have now joined the team. In April/May Mollie and Claire W will also join the team.

Garrison Transport Dave Harris led an initiative to promote the “Colchester Community Voluntary Services (CCVS) Transport Scheme”. This resulted in an article in the local newspaper. The CCVS Transport Scheme is a non-profit making project, providing car and accessible vehicle transport to people who have difficulty using public transport. If you are elderly, have a temporary or permanent illness or disability, or are perhaps a carer with transport problems, they can help. The Scheme can be used to travel anywhere you want to go, including medical appointments, shopping or day centres. There is an annual registration fee of £15.00 Please call 01206 216600 for further information.

Dave is also investigating obtaining funding for a “hopper bus” to provide transportation to the new site.

Thank you to Dave for all his work on this.

Newsletter on Line:- You can now receive the newsletter via e-mail – please go to the web site and sign up. As soon as the next newsletter is published you will be sent a copy. http://www.mersearoadsurgery.co.uk/

Health Champions James Yallop attended the meeting and provided information on the role of “Health Champions”:-

The Department of Health’s definition of a volunteer is: “Someone who commits time and energy for the benefit of others, who does so freely, through personal choice and without expectation of financial reward, except for payment of actual out of pocket expense”.

Our volunteer Health Champions give assistance in order that services may be enhanced to achieve higher levels of quality performance. These roles offer great opportunities for training and the opportunity to support people with differing health needs in your communities! All roles require references and CRB clearance for which there is no charge.

In summary the Health Champion role is to help promote Healthy Lifestyles in a variety of roles. Some are regular weekly roles, others are as and when. Acting as a “community signposter” to the Health Trainers and other health improvement services. Health Champions are based throughout North East Essex

If you are interested or indeed would just like to find out more please call Tricia on 01206 288572

Did Not Attend (DNA) DNA figures as promised:-

May 2011 243 June 2011 231 July 2011 221 August 2011 256 September 2011 332 October 2011 271 November 2011 350 December 2011 268 January 2012 378 February 2012 330

Figures remain constant despite text reminders and letters being sent to “repeat offenders”. Patients will now receive a text if they DNA – it remains to be seen if this has any impact on the figures.

Darren will provide an extra 180 appointments per week. However, as you can appreciate, if patients notified us that they were not able to attend there would be lots more appointments available.

If people have access to the internet they can cancel appointments via the web site:- http://www.mersearoadsurgery.co.uk/

Just click on the “Cancel Appointment” button.

Patient Group Ideally the Patient Group will grow to represent all patients and hence we would encourage people of all ages etc. to join.

Next Meeting The next meeting will be on Thursday 3 May 2012 @ 6.30pm at Mersea Road. Look forward to seeing everyone then.

NB need to avoid the 3rd and 4th Thursdays of the month if possible to ensure everyone can attend.