Rainbow Surgery Patients Group
Notes of Meeting held on Monday 21st September 2015
1.0
Present
(Chairperson) (RS)
(RA)
(CA)
(VB)
(AB)
(CR)
(BR)
(FC)
(SS)
(AS)
(JL)
(jl)
(JS)
(JR)
2.0
Apologies
2.1
Apologies were received from: AK, JB, DC, FF , AKA, RA.
3.0
Notes of Previous Meeting
3.1
Notes of the meeting held on Monday 20th July 2015 were read over and agreed by those
present and signed by the chairman.
4.0
Matters Arising
4.1
Re Item 1 – RS congratulated Jennie on her recent marriage and that she was now
known as Jennie Sandford. Those present also added their congratulations and best
wishes.
4.2
Re Item 8.5 – RS reported that he had spoken to Dr. Arun who stated that they would
do their best to attend but JS was always able to do the surgery update. JS stated that
she had spoken to Dr. John and that he stated he would be attending later this evening.
5.0
Finance
5.1
It was reported that there had been no transactions since the last meeting and the
balance was still £2,317.89.
6.0
Surgery Update – Jennie Sandford
6.1
JS reported that most of the issues would be covered under later agenda items.
6.2
The dates of the flu clinics were confirmed as Saturdays 17th October and 7th November.
Some groups had expressed an interest in attending and promoting their activities at
these sessions. FC stated he has been asked to set up a ‘Type2Together’ group for those
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Notes of Meeting 21-09-15
people with Type 2 diabetes and would also like to use the sessions to promote this. JS
stated she would also provide FC of future diabetic clinics in order that the group can be
promoted at these clinics.
7.0
Annual General Meeting
7.1
RS stated that he had secured a speaker for the AGM – it would be Dr. Jonathan
Wilcock from Warboys who would be speaking on the role of the Local Commissioning
Group.
7.2
Dr Arun had also agreed to speak at the AGM on issues affecting the surgery.
7.3
RS stated that he had spoken to M A who had kindly produced an attractive poster for
the event. These would be displayed in the surgery and locally.
7.4
RS asked that all members of the group be encouraged to bring somebody along with
them to help swell the numbers and promote the role of the group.
8.0
Care Home Proposal
8.1
RS reported that Dr. Arun had received a response from Nick Sutton, the landlord of
the property and developer, who had stated that they had withdrawn their original plans
and we rethinking the design and location of the development. That being the case the
surgery had withdrawn their objections and would reconsider any future proposals and
plans.
8.2
FC reported he had heard nothing back from Huntingdonshire District Council
Planning Department in response to our letter of objection. It was agreed that this
should be left to lie on file and the group would also consider any future proposals and
plans if necessary.
9.0
Future Fund Raising
9.1
RS explained the group needed to decide whether it wanted to raise funds in the future.
If yes, then a plan of action should be developed or if no then nothing more was
required to be done.
9.2
It was agreed that future fund raising should be for specific projects rather than just to
accumulate a pot of money in the account.
9.3
JS reported that the only regular funding project the group supported was the supply of
the water cooler and it was agreed that this would continue.
10.0
Fund Raising Projects
10.1
JS reported that recently a part of the surgery’s foetal Doppler (used to check a babys
heartbeat within the womb) had broken meaning that the patient had to attend hospital
for the procedure to be carried out. The cost of replacing the part would be in the region
of £100. It was agreed that the group would fund this replacement and JS should obtain
the necessary part as soon as possible.
10.2
FC asked if an electronic information system in the waiting rooms would benefit the
surgery and its patients. JS stated that a commercial company who provides these
systems funded by advertising had approached the surgery. The surgery had always
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Notes of Meeting 21-09-15
avoided this because of the amount of superfluous advertising often included in the
presentations displayed. FC stated that if we provided our own system we could control
what information and advertising, if any, would be displayed. PowerPoint presentations
could be created quite easily promoting the different groups supported by the surgery,
promotion of specific immunisation programmes, forthcoming events and publicity
around reducing the number of ‘no-show’ appointments. The system would require one
or two screens, a laptop computer or similar to drive the PowerPoint presentation and
either hard-wiring or Wi-Fi connection. FC agreed to investigate costs etc and report
back to the meeting.
10.3
It was agreed that other projects would be considered when identified.
11.0
Rota for Flu Immunisation Days
11.1
Provisional dates had been confirmed by JS in Item 6.2 above.
11.2
Members of the group agreed to attend both sessions to provide tea, coffee and biscuits
and patients would be asked for voluntary donations towards the costs incurred. RA
and CA stated they would donate tea and coffee on the 7th November. This kind offer
was gratefully accepted.
11.3
JS stated that the clinics were being promoted in the surgery, on prescriptions and by
text messages to patients. This was instead of writing to all patients and this would
reduce the enormous costs of producing and posting invitation letters.
12.0
Any Other Business
12.1
RS stated that traditionally August is a quiet month for meetings within the NHS and
that he had not attended any meetings as he was also unable to attend last week’s Hunts
Patients Congress and therefore he had no reports to give.
12.2
JL reported that he was no longer able to get to the same meeting and was therefore
resigning from the group. RS stated he would write to Hunts Patient Congress
informing them of John’s decision.
12.3
RS reported that he had been invited to attend a meeting on 7-day working. AS stated
that he also had been invited but would not be able to attend.
12.4
JS reported that they would not be looking at 7-day working at the moment as past
experience had proved that this was not of great demand in this area and that the current
‘out-of-hours’ service was adequate for local needs.
12.5
RS reported that Dr Arun had asked him if he would, on behalf of this group, consider
nominating JS and her team for the Royal College of Practitioners’ Practice Team Award
and Practice Managers’ Award. This he was more than happy to do and completed the
nomination form at very short notice to get it in by the closing date. Unfortunately they
were unsuccessful on this occasion and the organisers stated they were overwhelmed
with applications. JS and her team were very touched with the comments submitted in
the application and thanked RS for his submission.
12.6
Dr. John attended the meeting and was briefed on discussions etc and he thanked the
group for their kind donation to fund the replacement part of the monitor mentioned in
Item 10.1 above.
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12.7
Dr John reported that the NHS were investigating the proposal that some components
of secondary care should be integrated into primary care provision. He stated some
practices were looking at the possibility of sharing some specialist services and it was
believed that Dr Arun will comment on this at the AGM.
12.8
Dr John was thanked for his attendance at the meeting.
13.0
Date of Next Meeting
13.1
The date of the next meeting, which will be the AGM, is Monday 19th October 2015
commencing at 7.00pm.
There being no other business, the meeting was closed at 7.50pm.
These notes were agreed at the meeting held on:
Signed:
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