Minutes of Patient Participation Group (PPG) Meeting

Minutes of Patient Participation Group (PPG) meeting Monday 19th October, 2015

Present Chair - Maureen Howes, GP rep - Dr Roy Williams, Site Manager - Katie Bush, Admin rep – Cathy Mills, William Charles, Walter Tinley, Michael Parfitt, Derek Fisher, Phil Lamb, Sheila Lamb, David Bateman, Julia Bateman, Ann Hughes, Cheryl MacKinnon, Clive Hunt, Malcolm Allsopp, Trish Wheal Apologies Trevor Stokes, Diana Chalmers, Beryl Talbot, Thelma Griffiths, Diana Jackson, John Low Mr Low has had to retire from the committee. Maureen will write to thank him for his help and support.

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting saying how nice it was to see new faces, and gave a special welcome to Dr Williams and Katie.

The minutes from the previous meeting were read. Matters arising – the open morning was very successful. Worcs Carers Association, Age UK and Action on Hearing Loss have reported back to say it was very worthwhile. Letters of thanks have been sent out to all the participating charities. Future similar events were discussed with perhaps an evening for the younger generation and a morning or afternoon for moms and toddlers with maybe a nurse on hand. The moms and toddlers could perhaps have a toy swap.

We are still looking for a minute secretary. Stourport 6th form college has been contacted to see if any of the students who are patients would like to volunteer.

Dr Williams updated us about the Wyre Forest Health Partnership (WFHP) explaining the benefits for the 5 practices. Patients should not be seeing anything different but should be feeling the benefit. A new site for the surgery is still being sought and it would be a joint new building with York House surgery but the 2 surgeries would still be separate.

Fund-raising – Dr Williams and Katie would like the PPG to help raise funds for a new defibrillator as the one we have is not an up to date model. The cost is £2500. The committee was asked to come up with fund-raising ideas for the next meeting.

Dr Williams described a new email system for making appointments. When patients wanted to speak to their doctor they would be able to complete an online form which would be seen and assessed quickly by the doctor. This would save a lot of phone calls and advice would be more targeted. It would be run alongside existing contact methods. Dr Williams welcomed comments from the meeting and it was decided that he would attend the next meeting to discuss this further after members had had time to consider the proposal.

Wifi – funding has been obtained to install wifi in the surgery and for a laptop and tablet. Patients would be shown how to access the internet, book appointments online, order medication, etc. This should be up and running in the next few weeks. Volunteers will be sought to help. A talk was given by Pam Clark from Worcestershire Carers Association. She told us that about 10% of the population are carers but only 1% are actually recorded as such. Many carers are not well themselves and need as much support as the cared for. Stress, anxiety and lack of respite are common. Support is offered by carers associations to keep the carer in their caring role. Carers are usually family members or friends, are unpaid and do a fantastic job saving the country an estimated £119 billion. Members asked questions at the end of the talk and Cathy thanked Pam for speaking to us.

All PPG members are invited to the Wyre Forest PPGs meeting on Tuesday 10th November 6- 8pm at the Post Grad centre at Kidderminster Hospital (3rd Floor). This is a good opportunity to meet with PPG members from other surgeries and exchange ideas.

The next meeting will be on Monday 7th December, 2015 at 6pm.