<p> Abbey Field Medical Centre</p><p>Patient Group Minutes – Thursday 7 December 2017 @ 6.30pm </p><p>Attendees Nicky Young (Practice Manager), Dr Sonica Goel (Partner), Edith Dow, Elizabeth Bezzant, Barbara Breadman, Steven McDonough, Richard Iddon, Frank Butler </p><p>Apologies Merle Johnson </p><p>Minutes The minutes from the previous meeting were agreed.</p><p>Practice Update</p><p>Doctors : Dr Kerr has had a baby girl, Bethany, everyone is doing well. We have had difficulties covering the maternity leave – we did advertise for a maternity cover GP but only had one applicant who was requesting too much pay. We have also been let down, at the last minute, by some of the locums we had arranged which has caused many problems. </p><p>Registrars : Dr Felton our new registrar joined in December. Dr Lloyd Jones will leave in February and Dr Odujoko will join in February</p><p>Nurses : The Practice has taken on two new part time nurses to replace Rose; Corinne Clifford and Michelle Linsell. Many people will have already have met Corinne as she has been undertaking some locum sessions for us.</p><p>The Partners have decided to train both Katie Guerra and Debbie Olver to be Nurse Practitioners. They should be fully trained in 6 months. This will provide some much needed “on the day appointments” for the Practice. </p><p>Receptionist : The new Surgery Supervisor Tracey Hatcher joined at the beginning of December. She is managing the whole of Reception at all 3 sites and will be the first point of call for all complaints. Tracey actually sites in the telephone room – this makes it easier to monitor quality and help with calls when necessary. </p><p>We still have some Receptionist vacancies and are trying to fill these. </p><p>Hawthorn </p><p>Development of Hawthorn : There are plans to develop the area around and including the Hawthorn Surgery. This is in the public consultation phase at the moment. This could potentially present a great opportunity to provide first class facilities for the residents/patients.</p><p>Call Navigation</p><p>This has been delayed as the software which should be driving this has not been delivered. The idea behind Care Navigation is that Care Navigators (Receptionists) are trained to ensure patients receive care from the most appropriate clinician. . </p><p>Appointments</p><p>The appointment system was discussed at length. There have been problems with trying to replace Dr Kerr and this had added to the pressure. Also culturally many patients demand to see a doctor when a Nurse Practitioner could meet their needs. </p><p>Do No Attend!</p><p>These continue to be a problem. Apart from sending out warning letters to people who Do Not Attend 3 times in 6 months there is little else we can do.</p><p>Car Park</p><p>The opening of the Mercury in the old gym will increase pressures on car parking. Nicky is doing all that she can to try and address this. </p><p>Dementia/Carers Coffee Mornings</p><p>We are working with Foxburrow Grange to run dementia/carer coffee mornings – once a month.</p><p>GP North East Essex Network</p><p>In the future practices will only be able to bid for some services if they have 50,000 patients or more. We are working with East Hill, Great Bently, Mayflower, St James and Parsons Heath surgeries to provide services such as Extended Hours. By working with other surgeries we hope to be able to continue to provide existing services and maybe some new services to patients. </p><p>Date of Next Meetings:</p><p>Thursday 8 February 2018 Thursday 17 May 2018 Thursday 2 August 2018 Thursday 4 October 2018 Thursday 6 December 2018</p>