Saxon Spires Patient Participation Group Minutes of Meeting held on Tuesday 4th February 2020 18.30 p.m. – 19.45 at Surgery

Attending: Anne Strudwicke (Chairman), Louise Martin (Vice-Chairman), Barbara Hogg (Secretary), Claire Deare (Practice Manager), Dr. Chander Nayer, Julie Collins (Operations Manager, Brixworth), Sarah Berry (Operations Manager, Guilsborough), Graham Wood (Treasurer), Pam Bates (Minutes Secretary), Mike Parsons, Jean Templeman, Lottie Johnson-Cole, Ken Attwood, Jenny Theairs

Apologies: Dr. Julia Railson, Sarah Farrell, Dawn Dinnage, Richard Truby

Matters arising from previous Minutes : Lights in the Car Park at Brixworth were still on 24 hours a day. Claire said she would look into this but did wonder if it was for security reasons. There was a query regarding purchase of new Doppler machine for Guilsborough and Claire said she would look into this. With regard to the Good Neighbours Scheme, Barbara reported there was information about the scheme on the District Council website. The Parish Council should be contacted re setting this up locally and Mike said he would be seeing Mike Nice at the end of the week and would ask him.

Practice News: Claire reported that as from 1st April this year all practices will have to offer online consultations and from April 2021 video consultations too. A number of providers offer tools for the practice website with questions for patients to complete prior to appropriate appointments being given. The CCG has offered a choice of two providers, neither of which the practice likes as they are essentially “triage” tools, which enables the clinician to prioritise care after reviewing patients’ answers and which the Practice has strongly resisted. Following discussion with the other four practices in the Primary Care Network an alternative solution provided by our own clinical software supplier, EMIS, is being demonstrated on 25th February.

Two new nurses have been recruited, Sophie Wilkinson who started this week will be working four days a week and Charlotte Preston who starts at the beginning of March. Rebekah Mattacola leaves at the end of the month and diabetic management will be taken over by Claire Rose at Guilsborough and Emma Brennan at Brixworth. The two new nurses will enable Claire and Emma to see more diabetic patients and there will be more nursing hours overall.

We had a Care Quality Commission Review on 17th January and they were happy not to change our current rating of “Good” and will not be inspecting for another six months. Results of the Friends and Family Test Results for 2019 were then shared. There had been 3,628 responses, of which 82% were Extremely Likely to recommend the Practice, 11% Likely, 2% Neither Likely or Unlikely, 4% Extremely Unlikely and 1% Didn’t Know. We were third best Practice in the County. Anne queried whether we need to do another patient survey. From verbal feedback it seems medication repeat issues feature mainly in responses. The Practice has made a number of changes on the quality of our dispensary service since the survey in March 2019 and the survey will be repeated in March 2020.

Claire then gave an update from fundraising activities. The Carers coffee morning on 21st September 2019 raised £56.11 is to be given to the Carers Association and another on 6th December raised £79.00 which will be given to the Air Ambulance. The Charity Christmas Raffle raised a grand total of £505.00, and by the end of February 50% will be given to the Air Ambulance and 50% to DACT. The combined totals of two jumble sales held in October and December 2019 to raise surgery funds was £224.10. -2-

Carers’ Drop-In Sessions: Sarah and Julie reported that they plan Carers’ Drop-In Sessions, the first to be held in Brixworth on the 3rd March and another in Guilsborough on the 24th March – both from 1.00 p.m. to 3.00 p.m. in the afternoon. These will be Carer led and Kay Giles of Carers Association will come to these meetings. Further development work is in progress involving more people from the Surgeries as well as the communities. Anne commented that it would link in so easily with the Good Neighbourhood Scheme. Advertising posters will be prepared and also contact made by text messages and personal contact with those who may benefit. Anne raised another point that following contact with Guilsborough Academy prior to a previous session two pupils had attended. Tea dances were also in the pipeline – which had proved very popular.

Future Projects/Events: A coffee morning was usually held during Carers week but it was decided to amalgamate this with the Drop-Inn Sessions.

With regard to future talks by Doctors – which had previously not been well attended -Claire suggested a talk on the Menopause during the summer and it was agreed Dr. Boon be asked. Claire thought it a good idea for talks to be held on evenings when there were late surgeries i.e. Tuesdays at Brixworth and Thursdays at Guilsborough.

Claire thought Raffles would be a good way of raising further funding for another Doppler machine. Anne suggested a social evening with other Practice PPG groups would be beneficial – to share experiences and ideas.

Treasurers Report: Graham reported that since our last meeting the new ABPI Doppler system had been paid for (£3052.80) – leaving an overall total of £2090.45 – made up as follows : - Current Appeal total £1878.96 (surgery £592.40 and JG Crowdfund £1286.56). Patient group total £211.49.

Any Other Business: Ken suggested that Health Walks be advertised on the surgery monitors; Barbara reported that over 300 had attended a recent Park run. Carol Phillips is now a Governor of Northampton Healthcare Foundation Mental Trust and she has asked if she could talk to the group about her work. Barbara to invite her to the Annual General Meeting

Haddonstone was mentioned and the offer of a stone at the front of Brixworth Surgery and the position discussed. Mike agreed to find out if their offer still stands. As Secretary of the Neighbourhood Plan Group, Mike mentioned that with new Council arrangements, there was a possibility that land owners may put in another Planning application for a Care Village. He felt it important the Practice be aware of this and the implications this would have.

Date and Time of Next AGM Meeting

Tues. 7th April 2020 at Guilsborough Surgery at 6.30 p.m.

Pam Bates Minutes Secretary