Minutes of Patient Participation Group Meeting Charing Surgery

Minutes of Patient Participation Group Meeting – Charing Surgery Monday 22nd February 2016

Present: Dr Naganathar, Dr Dunnet, Kay Acott, Sarah Dawson, Michaela Craske, Dave Tawney, Angus Stevens, Jo Munro, Yvonne Fernando, Penny Sutcliffe, Annie Jeffrey, Dr Warrilow

Apologies: Ann Murray, Victoria Fisher, Julia Elliot

1. Welcome Kay welcomed all to the meeting and passed on apologies. Thanks were given to Christina Turnbull for her contribution to the PPG.

2. Appointment of new Chair Introductions were made by all members of the Group to Angus Stevens who has kindly agreed to take on the role of Chair of the PPG with immediate effect. Kay nominated Gus and Yvonne Fernando seconded the nomination. It was agreed Kay would chair this meeting and Gus would take the lead from the next meeting. Gus was welcomed onto the PPG. Thanks were given to Annie for her chairmanship.

3. Live Well Love Life planning It was agreed that the PPG were keen to continue to develop and run events under the ‘Live Well Love Life’ banner as a follow on from the event in the summer last year. It was agreed that an event would not be run in conjunction with the school this year as a Friday evening was not a good time for patients to attend any event based at the surgery. Yvonne agrees to convey this to Pip Tanton at the School. It was agreed that the village Fete in late June may be a better opportunity to promote the surgery and health & wellbeing. Agreed Yvonne to speak to Anita Gudge about the possibility of the surgery being involved and Kay and Yvonne would set up a working party to develop the plan.

4. Car Park Kay advised that there have been comments and complaints about the car park and requests that white lines be painted in the car park to encourage patients to park inside the parking bays as well as complaints about commuters and local residents parking in the car park. Kay advised that the surgery had paid to have leaflets put on cars parked in the surgery that should not have been parked there, but it had made little difference. It was agreed that the surgery was fortunate to be able to offer its patient’s such a large, free car park and that one option to encourage appropriate parking would be to charge for the use of the car park but it was not something the surgery was keen to do. It was agreed that white lines would look out of keeping; that it was not an appropriate use of funds and unlikely to make any difference to how cars were parked as evidenced by the fact that cars are regularly parked on the double yellow lines, in the ambulance bay and inappropriately in disabled parking spaces. Agreed Kay would put a notice on the PPG board in reception to explain the position re parking. 5. Expansion of PPG – recruitment of new members Agreed that the PPG would welcome more members but so far had not been successful in recruiting many. Agreed to promote at the Live Well Love Life Event at the Charing Fete.

6. CQC Inspection Kay and the partners expressed their thanks to the PPG for their support at the recent CQC inspection on 10th February and shared the positive feedback that was given to the surgery staff at the end of the inspection day. Once the final inspection report has been received it will be shared by Kay with the PPG.

7. Flu vaccination The flu vaccine uptake has been lower than the Public Health target on a national basis and this has been reflected in the uptake by Charing patients. Kay asked that the PPG encourage any eligible patients to drop in to get their flu vaccination which is available from the drop in clinic in the pharmacy during pharmacy opening hours, including Saturday mornings.

8. Flooring Kay advised that the surgery had been successful in obtaining a grant from NHS England towards the cost of replacing the carpet in the waiting rooms and several of the clinical rooms. The installation was now complete and it was agreed that the new flooring has enhanced the look of the surgery.

9. New staff Kay advised that 4 new staff have joined the surgery and pharmacy. Sam Medlock has joined the Patient Services team, Megan Knight is a new nurse and Debra Parris and Gillian Janson have joined the pharmacy team.

10. Patient Access to medical records Kay gave an overview of the NHS initiative to give all patients online access to certain elements of their medical record. This is currently restricted to allergies, medication, past & current problems, test results, medications and dates of consultations. The PPG discussed the potential risks associated with this as well as the benefits and the concern this could create additional work for the GPs as all records will need to be reviewed by a GP before patients are given access. The partners advised that the surgery policy will be to make access available to patients aged over 16. The PPG members agreed to trial the new system by signing up for on line access and to provide feedback and any concerns or suggestions to Kay.

11. CCTV Kay advised that CCTV is going to be installed in public areas of the surgery and pharmacy in the next few weeks. The decision has been made to implement CCTV in response to a break in to the Nurse Practitioners’ room during surgery opening hours. Fortunately nothing was stolen but it was decided that in the interests of patient safety that the surgery should invest in CCTV.

12. Volunteer Drivers The PPG discussed where the responsibility for signing up volunteer drivers should sit – with the surgery or with the PPG. It was agreed that the surgery cannot take on this responsibility as could create a liability for the surgery but it is not clear that the PPG can take on responsibility either. Annie J advised that Smarden runs a volunteer driver service and agreed to find out how that service is operated. Angus S advised that drivers should not charge patients for driving them to appointments as that could invalidate their insurance.

13. Publication of earnings Kay advised that NHS England has made it a condition of the 2015/16 contract that all GPs must make public their earnings by publishing them on their practice website. It was discussed that this was an unreasonable request and without any apparent justification. Kay confirmed that the surgery has complied and the GP’s earnings have been published on the surgery website.

14. Gardening Group update Jo and Yvonne gave a detailed updated on the outstanding progress made by the gardening group in developing the garden and the successful fundraising which has allowed the garden to be developed to this point. Jo thanked all the volunteers that have been involved so far and also thanked those members of the committee who have now stepped down. Yvonne shared the emails that had been sent to the PPG email address but only recently discovered, regarding the footpath edging and confirmed she is following up on these emails. It was agreed that the group would continue to fund raise to try and secure funding for the items on the group’s ‘wish list’. The benefits of the garden and gardening were again discussed and all agreed to try to encourage more volunteers. It was also agreed that members of the gardening group should be asked to sign a confidentiality agreement and Kay will provide a copy of this to Jo.

15. Ashford PPG Update Annie advised that a patient engagement event is planned and that she will send details to anyone interested in attending.

16. Any other business a. YF advised that relaxation and meditation classes will be running from 6pm to 7pm on Wednesday evenings for 8 weeks.

17. Next Meeting – the date of the next meeting was agreed as Monday 16th May 2016 at 7pm in the seminar room at the Charing Surgery. Apologies were given by RD, SD and DT.