Minutes Patient Participation Group Meeting - Abbreviated
Tuesday 20 th January 2015 6pm Hetton Medical Centre
Present
Julie Tumilty
Dr Barnes
7 Patient forum members
Apologies
1 Patient forum member
Welcome and introductions to our new forum members.
Sunderland People First (SPF)
We have recently received our Health Quality checkers report, which reported on the quality of the service provided to our patients with Learning Disabilities and this was discussed by the group. An action plan has been drawn up by the practice and this was discussed with the patient group.
Actions agreed:
Improvements in signage.
Staffing.
Waiting room area spacing of chairs.
Wheelchair accessibility.
Training.
The Practice has also agreed to be a ‘Safe Haven’ for those with a Learning Disability.
Patient Online Access
Patient Online Access now includes the ability for patients to view their allergies and immunisations.
Charities
In 2014 the Practice raised a total of £2,161 for our chosen charity ‘Hug in a bag’ a local charity which provides a bag to those who have recently been diagnosed with Breast
Cancer. In 2015 the charity we have chosen to support is the ‘Great North Ambulance
Service’ and we will be undertaking a number of fundraising activities during the year.
Mission Statement
Reviewed Mission Statement with forum members and agreed.

Friends and Family Test
Patients are now completing the Friends and Family test slips and leaving in a box on reception. The practice is required to publish the results of these surveys and we are publishing the results on the practice website.
From February 2015 the practice will also be sending automatic surveys to be completed on the MJOG text messaging service once a patient has attended an appointment at the
Practice.
December 2014 results discussed with patient forum members.
Complaints
We discussed complaint themes to date from April 2014 to December 2014. Together with the Friends and Family Test and Significant events/incident themes it is hoped that the patient forum can come up with a list of key priorities for the Practice. The Practice will then produce an action plan to illustrate how the Practice will implement improvements based on these key priorities.
Significant Events and Incidents
The Practice is encouraged to report all incidents and Significant Events on a reporting tool. The analysis from April 2014 to December 2014 was discussed with forum members. This includes all incidents and significant events whether minor or major. The forum members discussed the themes from the analysis.
Priority Areas
From all the information given to the patient forum members:
Friends and Family Test (results December 2014)
Complaints themes (April 2014 – December 2014)
Significant event/Incident themes (April 2014 – December 2014)
The patient group agreed on the following key priorities:
1) Antibiotic prescribing
Agreed for the Practice to reduce antibiotic prescribing as an audit of the Practice prescribing data.
The clinicians will always prescribe to patients when it is clinically appropriate to do so.
Discussed with patient forum their thoughts around the issue of ‘delayed prescriptions’.
The clinicians on examining the patients are not of the opinion that the patient requires antibiotics but to alleviate any worries the clinician will issue a prescription for e.g. 48 hours which the patient can collect if they feel no better. The forum members were not convinced this would illustrate the correct message to patients as they felt it was possible that patients would collect the medication anyway.

The message the Practice needs to get out to patients is that antibiotics often have no benefit for many types of infection and using them unnecessarily would only increase the risk of antibiotic resistance, so should not routinely used. It was agreed that an education campaign for patients around antibiotics was needed and that the GPs and nurses will always prescribe when clinically appropriate to do so. Educational materials and training sessions to be arranged for all clinicians of up to date guidelines. The Practice is also producing audits on individual clinicians prescribing patterns.
2) Communication Issues
It was agreed to provide some training to the GPs (video consultations/decision making techniques) and then resurvey on the questions we scored poorly on and then produce an action plan to improve future survey results and satisfaction for the patients.
The original survey had taken place when the Practice was piloting the telephone triage system and again when it was started in the Practice which we were unaware of at that time so the results may be skewed from those unhappy with the new system.
It was also discussed as we have a voice recorder on the telephone system a selection of calls could be listened to for training and learning points to be discussed and reviewed as a team.
Agreed also to look at pressure points with Receptionists – answering phones at front desk/more staff on front desk etc.
3) Similar names
The Practice has a number of patients with the same name and even the same name living at the same address (junior and senior). We also have a number of patients with similar names. A number of issues have arisen during the year of the incorrect patient being selected due to being either similar or same name. It was agreed to discuss with all clinicians and staff within the practice to identify patients with three different identifiable patient information e.g.name, date of birth and address. This will be reviewed next year to ascertain if the incidents have been reduced or eliminated.
Any other business
Dr A Cox (female) will be commencing at the Practice on 1 st
April 2015.
Dr vanBuuren will be retiring from the Practice on 29 th July 2015.
Thank you to all members for attending.
Date and time of next meeting to be advised.