MINUTES OF PATIENT PARTICIPATION GROUP MEETING
HELD MONDAY 16TH MARCH 2015 AT BRIDGEGATE MEDICAL CENTRE
Present:
Chair: Philip Jones (Practice Manager)
Karen Donnan (Health Care Assistant)
Mr Eric Winfield
Mr Derek Passmore
Mr Alfred Hadley
Mrs Pauline Smith
Apologies:
Mr Ian Snow
Mrs Maureen Snow
Mrs Nancy McKinnell
Mrs Jennifer Richardson
Minutes: Carole McBain
1. Minutes from previous meeting
Previously circulated via post or email. Hard copies available at the meeting.
2. Matters Arising
No matters arising from the group.
3. Review of the year
Philip gave an overview of the changes in the surgery over the last 12 months.
A range of initiatives have been put in place over the last 12 month to increase GP
availability
Telephone Triage – This has been running for over 12 months now and is also proving to
be a success.
Patients who call the surgery in a morning and are wanting an ‘on the day’ appointment with
a doctor and they feel they cannot wait, can be offered a telephone call as an alternative
with the duty doctor. The duty doctor will then call the patient back that morning and try to
deal with the issue over the telephone, if this is not viable then the duty doctor will ask the
patient to come down to the surgery that day.
However, patients are now to be asked the reasons behind their request for a telephone
triage appointment as it is felt some telephone triage appointments were not always
necessary and that requests such as sick notes and prescription could be dealt with by
reception staff.
Philip asked everyone’s opinion regarding the triage – Mrs Smith said she had used the
triage and liked it.
Philip also explained that due to the success of the telephone triage the surgery may be
extending the telephone triage to each afternoon.
Extended Access – The GP Surgery opening times have changed on Tuesdays,
Wednesdays and Thursdays to 7.30am – 7.00pm. This has increased the GP availability by
25%.
Mrs Smith asked if the extra hours have been needed. Philip informed the group that
demand is always there and the extra availability was needed, it has proven to be a success.
Giving patients more flexibility especially patients who need to arrange appointments before
and after their own working hours.
Mr Hadley shared his annoyance about the amount of appointments which are wasted
through patients not turning up for appointments. Philip - this has unfortunately always
been a problem but we do have a protocol where a letter is sent to a patient if they do not
show for 3 appointments.
Enhanced Services – This has involved care planning for the most “at risk” patients. The
surgery has a register with 167 patients on a Care Plan. This has involved each patient
having a consultation with a GP to discuss their needs. These care plans are to be reviewed
every 3 months. This register is to be managed and should stay at 2% of the total of the
surgery’s patients.
CQC Inspection – Philip thanked the Patient Participation Group for their involvement with
the CQC Inspection – the outcome was discussed.
Friends and Family Test – This will be a card in the surgery asking the question “would
you recommend the surgery to friends and family” hopefully this will gain some feedback
from the patients. The initiative began in December but has so far had little take up.
Also as from 31 March 2015 patients who register online will be able to access limited
medical records.
4. Changes to the Chronic Disease Recalls
As from 1st April 2015 we are changing the way that patients with Chronic Diseases are
recalled for reviews.
At the moment 70% of nurse’s time in the surgery is taken up with patients with Chronic
Diseases. Although we know this is an important part of the nurse’s work we hope that with
smarting working we can, with a change in our recall system, reduce the nurse’s time to
29%.
How we aim to do this - firstly aligning each patients recall with their birth month, then at
each patients review cover all aspects of their chronic disease. The whole rationale behind
the reorganisation of the chronic recall system is to offer a better service to patients by
creating a “one stop shop”, but also to alleviate the workload for clinicians.
This also allows patients to be proactive and remembering their review date as it will fall in
their birth month.
Mr Passmore expressed that this was a very good idea.
5. Federation of GP Practices
Bridgegate Medical Centre has signed up to join other surgeries in Furness and in South
Lakes to provide a limited company of GP’s. Dr Waind our Senior GP has been elected as a
board member.
One of the many objectives is to deliver measurable improvements in the quality of care we
provide to our patients and to support each other.
The vision is that working together will create a sustainable future for general practice
across South Cumbria and within five years we will be delivering the best primary health
care.
Drug and Alcohol Management Clinics – The Drug And Alcohol Service is up for retender, the
contract is now being administered through Public Health, change to a recovery model and
cuts in funding, have meant the service may become unprofitable to continue to run at the
practice.
Dr Culling lead GP along with colleagues in the county have written to Public Health, as the
renew recovery model is at odd with RCGP model for Drug and Alcohol patients. A response
is awaited.
6. Prescription Requests
Mr Winfield wanted some clarification on the process for prescription requests as he had had
a couple of problems recently.

If there is ever a problem with the EPS system (prescriptions being sent
electronically to a chemist) then the prescription will be sent via the van driver to the
chemist instead.

if a prescription has been rejected because a medication review is due this would be
feedback to the chemist, but not necessarily direct to a patient.
Action Plan





Chronic Disease Recalls starting 1st April 2015.
Monitor Triage use and possible extension to afternoon surgeries
Outside of the building to be painted.
A bike rack requested for patients.
Large bush outside front to be cut down.
7. Any other business
No other business.
8. Date and time of next meeting
In 6 months (date to be agreed at a later date).