New Street and Netherton Group Practice

New Street and Netherton Group Practice Patient Participation Group

Minutes Saturday 27 th June 2015 (34 th Meeting)

Present: Anne Tinsdeall (Practice Manager) Dawn Vince (Deputy Practice Manager/Office Manager) Andrew Redfearn (Patient/Group Secretary) Peter Adu (Patient) Aileen Patterson (Patient) Margot Redfearn (Patient) Susan Jennett (Patient) Kevin Smith (Patient)

Apologies: Kemlyn Cudjoe (Patient)

1. Welcome

Anne welcomed the group to the meeting and introduced Peter Adu, our latest PPG member who is a patient at Netherton.

2. Review of Previous Minutes

Andrew went through the major points of the last meeting.

3. Friends and Family Feedback

The practice has had a “big push” during two days in June and has got just short of 40 responses this month. (7 being the minimum requirement to send the results off for analysis). We will always try to target two days per month, split across both sites.

We have received a total of 63 responses from January to May, with the majority of responses from May being positive.

4. Feedback Regarding Travelling to Other Surgeries for Appointments at Weekends

The government is looking at introducing legislation for GP practices to open seven days per week. To help reduce workload and “stress on the system”, it is possible that patients will be able to visit a practice different from their own during weekends to receive treatment (the patient will have to give consent to the practice they’re visiting to view their medical records). While some patients may feel uncomfortable in putting their care “in the hands of a strange GP”, in essence this is no different to seeing a new GP at their own practice for the first time.

The group were unanimous in saying “yes”, they would travel to another surgery during weekends if they required treatment, the consensus being that if you are ill, you “can’t afford to be selective in seeing the GP of your choice at your own surgery”.

5. Any Other Business

 A+ E departments and other departments in secondary care monitor data on the number of patients that attend A&E, the type of treatments they receive etc. They then use this data to put forward cases for extra funding, additional staff etc. Our practice (primary care) will be monitoring all access to the practice be it for face to face consultations or requests for sicknotes/personal letters/reports etc. With the results of the audits our practice alongside others in Primary Care will have the ability to put forward cases similar to Secondary Care Services in times of extreme demand on services. If these business cases are successful it will give Primary care the ability to implement changes and improvements.

We will piloting this in October, doing a “real one” in November and again in January 2016 to see if improvements and changes have been sustainable.

 Andrew – Cowlersley Pharmacy has asked him on more than occasion to attend a “medication review”. Anne advised that this is optional and that the practice still carries out annual reviews, if required.  Margot – suggested a return visit to Cowlersley Court for Sunday lunch. Anne to follow-up.

 Taylor Funeral Service (Cowlersley) are holding a charity garden fete on Saturday 25th July, starting at 11.00 am. We aim to have our PPG at 10.00 am on this date and then attend the fete as a group. Anne to contact TFS to let them know that we will be attending.

 The meeting closed with thanks to all.