Liverpool House Surgery Patient Group Meeting
Tuesday 28th January 2014
Present:
Dr S Harvey, Maxine Baron, Barry, Mike, Karen, John & Fiona Adair (deaf
interpreter)
Apologies:
Audrey & Audrey
This was the second meeting of the group; we had come together today to discuss the patient
survey that was carried out in-house in early January.
Survey
At the previous meeting the group decided and agreed to review the repeat prescribing system inhouse looking at requesting and receiving repeat medications. We targeted 50 random patients
who came into the surgery for an appointment and who received repeat medications.
With the current prescribing system patients can request a repeat prescription in various ways –
on the telephone between 9am-12pm every day, online via email or the surgery website or via
patient access or completing the back slip of the previous issued prescription and bringing this
back into the surgery for the administrative staff to process.
As a surgery we try to complete this process in a timely manner making this as safe as possible.
We have implemented an electronic system to ensure that people can collect at a pharmacy
nearer to their home or place of work and switched on patient access so people can order on-line
prescriptions at any time of the day.
Overall feedback;Most people are happy with the service and at the present time the surgery is able to cope with the
demand. It was asked if we review any problems periodically to give the practice a focus to review
errors and look into rectifying this – yes we do, we hold clinical team meetings every 6-weeks with
the practice nurses and healthcare assistant to review problems, significant events etc. The most
significant thing here of note is that the majority of errors with prescribing are from telephone
requests due to human error – it is a much safer working practice to request repeat medications in
a written format either electronically (emailed, online or via pharmacy EPS) or over the counter
with a pre-printed back slip. We are currently the only Practice in Cumbria who takes telephone
requests for medications over the telephone. Truthfully though - we have not had any big
problems that have caused major issues with prescribing.
We will continue to process our prescriptions in this manner as this is acceptable to our patients.
There have been a couple of problems with the electronic prescribing service (EPS) lately but
connecting for health is reviewing this.
Everyone present is happy for the survey to be uploaded onto the Practice website and a report to
be drafted detailing the findings. The current system works well at Liverpool House the patients
don’t want this to change – they have embraced EPS and more people are using this facility now.
Queries from group;1. The question was asked do we monitor what comes through electronically and can we
prevent people from over ordering – yes! The clinical database monitors all prescriptions
being prescribed to patients, every consultation and prescription is documented into the
patient’s record – there is an inbuilt auditing process which can track this.
2. Is there capacity for order extra medications if needed? – yes we allow more than one
month’s supply if there is a valid reason such as going on a long term holiday etc.
3. What about medications supplied at the hospital do they go onto your prescribing budget –
Yes for those issued in Outpatient’s Department and No to those issued whilst you are an
Inpatient.
Good news we are currently on target to meet our prescribing budget this year – we have worked
really hard and reviewed all areas to make good cost effective savings – encouraging patients
where necessary to purchase medication over the counter (this can be cheaper than a
prescription).
CQC
Care Quality Commission (CQC) – everyone may have heard of this organisation who are
currently visiting all NHS premises to see if they are safe, effective, caring, responsive and well
lead. They have already visited all the dental practices in Cumbria and have been into the local
hospital and one surgery in Barrow. They will review areas of safety, legislation etc. We are
aware that our building works for us as a Practice but as we are located in an end of terraced
house which is not fit for purpose and it may not tick every box for CQC (we are not alone in this
as a lot of GP practices across the country are setup like this). As a practice we utilise the 2
consulting rooms downstairs for people who cannot make the stairs, our doctors and nurses are
very happy to come downstairs for the benefit of the patients. We have had work carried out on
the practice – updating the treatment room floor, decorating etc. – as this is a fairly new process in
general practice we are unsure really what to expect but envisage that the process is going to be
very similar to the Ofsted inspections in schools with a rating system applied (this comes into force
in October 2014). CQC have assured practices that they will be given 48-hours’ notice when an
inspection is to take place.
We would like to ask if there would be any members of the group today who would be willing to
come along to the inspection as a voice of the patient’s to discuss the surgery with the inspectors
– we have 3 willing members.
New Premises
You will probably all of heard in the local press that new health premises are going to be built in
Barrow-in-Furness. The plan is to move Doctor’s surgeries, community nursing, physiotherapists,
mental health services, school nurses and other community health services into these purpose
built facilities. The planned site for these premises is the old Alfred Barrow Secondary School.
The old façade at the front of the building will be retained (housing mainly administrative offices
with buildings at the back to accommodate the clinical areas. We have been reassured that there
will be plenty of car parking spaces for staff and visiting patients to the site. We feel that due to
our current building we may need to move into these new premises along with another 5 local
Doctors surgeries (Atkinson Health Centre, both surgeries Hartington Street, Abbey Practice, and
Risedale Surgery). There are also plans for Cumbria Ambulance Trust to move onto the site as
their current location is to be demolished. There was also talk of x-ray facilities at the site – which
everyone thinks is completely bonkers considering there is a perfectly good facility 2-mile away at
the local hospital. There is also the feasability of extra consulting rooms for Consultants from
secondary care to hold sessions on the premises – which may lead to private consultations something we don’t currently have in Barrow just now.
Dr Harvey reassured everyone that there were no plans to merge surgeries each practice would
work independently as they currently do.
AOB
Furness Locality – just a little information on what is happening within the NHS Structure locally,
we are part of Cumbria CCG (clinical commissioning group) which is a GP led clinical
commissioning system which focuses on delivering quality health care that will bring real benefits
to patients and the public. We are part of a bigger North England group – Cumbria,
Northumberland, Tyne & Wear (CNTW area team). Cumbria due to geography is separated into 6
local areas – Allerdale, Copeland, Eden, South Lakes, Carlisle & Furness (Barrow, Dalton, Askam,
Kirby, Broughton & Millom).
They are very keen to engage with the population of Cumbria to enable them to do that the best
way is via general practice as we have a list of patients registered with our practices. Most
practices now have patient representative groups our Locality would like to engage with the
Practices Patient Representative groups to be involved with future service development for
Furness. Can you bear this in mind for the future?
We are geographically far away from major teaching hospitals here in Furness so we don’t always
have all the services available but can refer our patients to centres of excellence like Blackpool for
cardiology – the CCG is keen for local people to have a say in what happens with their health
services.