PATIENT MEETING
MONDAY 17TH NOVEMBER 2014
Present: Cynthia Jackson (Practice Manager), Lesley Shaw (Senior Practice Administrator), AC, SD, EJ, MU, DC, PB and
MB (Patients)
Apologies: Dr Hildreth, Kerr Young (Pharmacist) SG, DG, JB, and VFW (Patients)
1. Minutes of last meeting
2. Matters arising
3. Feedback from CCG
4. Snapshot patient survey
5. Self care week
6. Walking group
7. Customer service
8. Social prescribing
9. aob
Item Discussion
accepted
1.
We further discussed the role of the pharmacist and how
2.
he could be of benefit to patients who would like to
discuss their medication in a little more detail than the
doctor has time for.
One of the doctors mentioned that he did not feel
comfortable that we were publicising cost to the practice
Action agreed
Publicise in practice booklet, on line and in the waiting
rooms.
Turn the information into a positive by publicising the
% of patients who did turn up for appointments in the
month.
of wasted appointments. Some suggestions were made by
members of the group.
3.
4.
Ask patients to complete their own appointment cards.
Publicise cost to NHS rather than cost to practice.
Staff should perhaps probe a little more to see if the
We discussed continuity of patient care with Dr Roberts as patient would be prepared to see another GP,
the example.
alternatively if the need is a little urgent and only a
specific doctor will be acceptable, pass to Lesley.
EJ feed back from CCG meeting. Wendy Bourke who is a Following discussion it was suggested that the project
local authority employee explained to the meeting that
should be costed i.e. how much is a gym membership
there had been funding set asked for 100 gym places for a compared to potential hospital admissions due to
period of 3 months. There is no plan to roll this out, the
lifestyle related illnesses. Make the case for cost
issue being that the CCG and the Local Authority would
efficiencies linked to patient benefit.
need to jointly fund such a project. EJ made the argument
that this is linked to self care and that patients who are
fitter are a reduced burdon on the NHS because they are
happier and less stressed.
Not fully discussed. From the snapshot there seems to be Repeat snapshot survey in January.
less satisfaction with practice staff in comparison to
previous surveys. It is too early to tell whether or not
extra doctor time will improve this view. Patients do not
It was suggested that perhaps this is patient education as
believe it is easy to access their doctor of choice.
many may be unaware that some doctors in the practice
are part time, coupled with the fact that all work across
at least two of the sites and some patients are unable or
unwilling to travel. All doctors have access to the
computerised patient record, therefore, there is in fact
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
Across North Tyneside patients are being encouraged to
make greater use of pharmacist expertise when suffering
from minor illnesses such as coughs and colds. There is a
North Tyneside wide meeting on Thursday to discuss this
further.
Three members of our group expressed an interest in
training to lead walking groups made up of practice
patients.
To be discussed following next patient survey.
This initiative will be launched in January.
Those present expressed their views as to how important
they think it is to have a doctor at the meeting.
Date and Time of next meeting – Monday 19th January
Group Achievements this year:
 Extra doctor employed to improve access
 Skillmix – review of IT functionality; pharmacist
employed to take some routine work away from the
doctor; trainee counsellor placement in hand
 SMS messaging re test results, appointment
reminders
 Resource folder
 Self help posters in the waiting room
 McMillan coffee morning
continuity of care even if the patient is not always
seeing the same doctor.
Outcome to be fed back at next group meeting and
further action within the practice discussed.
Cynthia to contact Wendy Burke regarding taking this
forward.
 Review of telephone message when patients
contacting the surgery
 Weight management discussions with the CCG
 Self help link on website
 More appointments available to book on line
 Patient information re North Tyneside weight
management services published on website
 Discussion with dietician re future plans for North
Tyneside
 Discussion with pharmacist regarding providing
more information to patients when prescribing new
medications and his role in the practice.