Park End Surgery - Patients Group

Park End Surgery - Patients Group Committee meeting May 26th 2016 1) Members Present: Ann Mir, Ros Tranter, Jan Williams, Peter Hallgarten, Doris Sherwood

2) Apologies: John Blake, Joanna Molloy, Connie Smith Staff in attendance: Di Janus, Ed Poole, Valerie Williams 3) Notes from April meeting Agreed.

Noted that Doris had given apologies for last meeting but this had not been recorded Matters Arising None 4) Nursing cover in the surgery during May

Nicola, our Practice Nurse, has taken a month’s extended leave in May in order to visit her family in New Zealand. Di has engaged three locum Practice Nurses, all of whom work normally at the James Wigg practice in Kentish Town. The arrangement is working well: there are sufficient nursing appointments to meet demand; patient feedback about the locum nurses has been good. It should be noted that Rocio and Zuzana, our two Health Care Assistants, had helped plug the gap by taking on some aspects of Nicola’s work. Nicola will be back at the surgery from 31st May.

5) The Parkender – our newsletter

The newsletter has been emailed to all patients with email addresses – about 1500 – and 500 printed copies have been produced and are laid around the waiting area each day.

Feedback has been excellent! Those patients who have commented have praised the content, the interest factor and the way in which it demonstrates the surgery’s care for its patients. Big thanks due to Christopher who drove through its production with patience and tenacity!

It was agreed that the next edition should include articles about Dr Hilary Shaw’s death; reference to the new seating and the patient donation that made it possible; the importance of flu immunisations from this September. Any other items gratefully received!

6) Waiting room seating The 12 wooden seats have all been upholstered and look very smart – a great improvement on the previous hard wood. The company had been suggested by Charlotte: they turned out to produce excellent quality and undertook the job in record time in order to ensure that patients weren’t left without seating for any longer than necessary. Di has been in touch with the patient who donated the money to make this possible, informed him of the outcome and the delight of Partners and patients. The patient made it clear that, in order to show his sincere appreciation of the practice, he would be happy to give further financial help if the practice needs it.

As an NHS General Practice, Partners cannot accept money that might be interpreted as underwriting NHS services or equipment. However, Partners have asked Di to explore the practice setting up the PPG as a Registered Charity so that donations could be made to go towards improvements to benefit patients.

7) North Locality Alliance of Patient Participation Groups (NLA) The NLA is an Alliance of the 13 patient groups attached to the 13 GP practices that make up the Camden North Locality Group. This PPG Alliance meets quarterly to share information about each other’s PPGs and discuss items of common interest. They also arrange Open Meetings on relevant topics for all members of the 13 PPGs. Ann Mir represents Park End PPG on this Alliance.

Ann reported that the next meeting of the NLA is scheduled for Wednesday 29th June 6.30pm and will be hosted in the meeting room at Park End. The agenda for that meeting was discussed and it was agreed that it should include:

 Park End Surgery’s Power point presentation (produced for CQC) about the surgery, its services and patient group  Camden Integrated Digital Record (CIDR) which is relevant to all PPGs. Ed will try to attend that meeting to present the information. Patients asked Ed to clarify as much as possible about CIDR in the meantime, including what exactly goes onto a patient’s CIDR record from the GP practice if patients haven’t opted out.

Ann asked that any Park End PPG members join the meeting if possible.

8) National Association for Patient Participation (NAPP) – report back Both Ann and Ros had read the information sent to us by NAPP and had also attended a NAPP meeting. They felt that both the information and the meeting had been helpful in supporting PPGs to establish themselves and organise their activities. NAPP advocated that all PPGs should have a Constitution in order that they are clear about why they exist and what activities they intend to undertake. Park End’s PPG had produced Terms of Reference in its infancy and those had been modified in later years as necessary. However, as the ToR hasn’t been circulated for some time, it was agreed that Di should re-circulate as a reminder to long standing members and valuable information for new members.

9) Camden Integrated Digital Record (CIDR) This record is intended to allow all those agencies involved in a single person’s care to see a shared record thus providing an overview of all health and social care contributions to a patient’s care. Park End is very supportive of this initiative believing that it should co-ordinate patients’ care more effectively and allow GPs to see what input a patient is having from elsewhere. However, at present, we have concerns regarding the system that, at present, does not allow patients to ‘opt-out’ of CIDR without giving their personal information. Ed reported that he continues to chase Camden CCG on the surgery’s behalf – and therefore on behalf of all Camden practices – to ensure that patients do not have to submit personal information when they choose not to have a CIDR record. He has met with CIDR and IT Officers to ask for a ‘code’ that practices can enter onto a patient’s medical record if they choose to opt-out. Once a code is on a medical record, it would block any attempt to share that patient’s information, without the need for them to give any personal details to the CIDR team. CCG Officers have told Ed that they are pursuing this option but, in the meantime, patients wishing to opt out still need to complete a form with their details and have it sent to the CIDR team. Ed is still on the case! Our Partners are fully supportive of the aims of CIDR but have made it clear that, until the CCG and CIDR team can ensure patient confidentiality, our Practice may withdraw from the scheme. 10) Park End Surgery – PMS contract Di reported that the NHS England deadline for our new Contract being implemented – with reduced funding – has slipped yet again. The deadline has now been postponed from the end of June to the end of October. This calls into question whether any PMS contracts should be reviewed as it is the Government’s intention to have a brand new GP contract for all practices in place by 2017! The lack of an agreed revised contract means that Park End Partners have no information about the actual amount of funding that will be lost. This makes it impossible to plan beyond the next three month extension and, in turn, results in considerable instability for Partners who cannot guarantee that all services will survive; also instability for the staff team who cannot be assured whether their jobs will still exist after the review. We’ll continue to keep patients and the PPG informed of progress. 11) Park End Surgery – management reorganisation: the Hampstead GP Alliance Di confirmed that the 4 local practices are still actively working towards closer collaboration: Park End, Hampstead Group, Keats and Rosslyn Hill. The 4 Practice Managers have produced a shared management structure; Alliance Partners are also examining what services might be shared across the practices. The practices are currently working together to produce funding applications to help support the development of the Alliance: a six month Project Manager; an IT and telephony consultant; costs for the necessary changes to IT and telephony hardware and software. It is unlikely that this reorganisation will result in great cost savings; however the important aim is that the practices will be able to work ‘smarter’ and reduce some of the increasing demands/stress on the clinical and administrative staff. It should be borne in mind that, whilst it is crucial for the practices to pursue ‘survival’ via collaboration, the threatened reductions in funding to the four practices following a contract review could jeopardise these plans. 12) Any Other Business None

12) Date of next meeting 30th June 3.00pm at Park End - prior to taking a break in meetings during the holiday months of July & August -

Please note the meeting of the North Locality Alliance ( Item 7 above) the previous evening: Wednesday 29th June 6.30pm at Park End