Holly Medical Group
Patient Participation Group Meeting
27. 5. 2015
Chair: Elizabeth Hammill
Present: John King, Peter Willis, Graham Woodford, John North, Jill Baker, Jeff
Banning, Dr Susan Hughes, Katrina Roberts (Practice Manager), Alison Halliday
Apologies: Avril Forest, Martin Manasse, Carol Lossing-Rangecroft
1. Minutes of the previous meeting 11.2.15
Approved
2. Matters arising:
a) Membership
EH has not heard anything back from members who have not attended for some
time so we assume they are no longer members. EH will email them to confirm
this.
3. Developments at Holly Medical Group (HMG)
KR reported that:
a) she is reducing her hours at HMG by one day. She will be working at HMG 3 days
per week and managing another surgery in Gateshead 2 days per week. She will
work alternate days at each surgery.
b) GP surgeries in the morning are to be reduced by 2 appointments per doctor who
will then have 17 appointments and 10 telephone triage (assessment) appointments
available (only 5% of these need to be seen). Each day there is an on-call doctor.
There will be more pre bookable appointments at the end of the week. Reception staff
feel the appointment system works well at present. Surgeries are not allowed to cap
lists any more.
1) JK queried what the practice’s current DNA (non attendance) rates are: in
April, 55 patients missed doctor’s appointments of whom 7 were under 18 and
48 missed nurses appointments. HMG sends letters to ask patients to contact
practice to make an appointment rather than sending an appointment out to
patients.
c) PPG Constitution (see 3 j)
d) HMG has received funding for new flooring in rooms 5, 6, 8
e) It was agreed to keep an open mind regarding virtual PPG meetings
f) HMG is using EPS (electronic prescribing service) a lot more now as it offers a
much quicker turn around, no printing, no missing prescriptions.
g) HMG is very pleased to announce it received “Good” for its CQC inspection for
which the practice has a draft copy, and can submit any changes it wants to be made.
The final report should be released in approximately one month.
h) SCH reported on Musculo Skeletal Services, after conversations with Dr Guy
Pilkington, so-chair of the Newcastle Gateshead Alliance - in particular. regarding
the long waiting times for physiotherapy appointments. The CCG is aware of the
problem and points discussed included the following:
1) The community physio experience in most of Newcastle is not satisfactory
2) There are agreements with current providers across the city to re design
physio services
3) If this goes well, it will be be rolled out for practices and patients needing
physio by the end of 2015
4) A radical overhaul of the back pain pathway is being pursued
5) Care will be moved from hospital settings into the community including
consultants in IMATT (specialist musculoskeletal service) with acceptable
maximum waits for physio
6) IMATT is currently 2 and 6 weeks into a pilot programme but, in the
meantime, the 18 week wait from referral to treatment continues.
7) In the future there will hopefully be extended scope for physio, medical
orthopaedics, orthotics, for example. Currently there is a shortage of physic's.
8) JB stated that the current situation with long waiting times is driving people
to spend their own money on treatment because of a shortage of physic
therapists. It appears that GP’s do not really understand how bad the situation
is. Now this has become a reality, what do we do from here? Waiting times for
service in Gateshead are approximately 2-3 weeks.
j. KR explained changes to enhanced services (ES) which previously included extra
funding for PPG’s. From 1 April 2015, it became a contractual requirement for all
practices to have a patient participation group (PPG) and to make reasonable efforts
for this to be representative of the practice population. Funding associated with this
ES will be reinvested in global sum.
1) HMG has received its SLA (Service Level Agreements) for the coming
year. A handout entitled Requirement s of the PPG was given out. KR suggested that
the focus of PPG meetings should be ton he practice and that significant matters from meetings of the Acorn Group which conveys patient views to the
Newcastle Gateshead CCG Alliance and CCG views back to the PPG should
only be briefly reported.
4. EH: updates from ACORN Group, NNECCG Board and Newcastle Gateshead Alliance
a) The CCG Mental Health Transformation ’Deciding Together Listening Programme’ which sought the views and shared experiences of mental health special-
ists, carers, and patients from Newcastle and Gateshead as a starting point for revisioning adult mental care services is now complete. Public feedback took place at
three meetings in April. (Report available on the CCG website). Over the summer,
options/scenarios will be developed which demonstrate that views gathered in the listening period have been incorporated into proposals which will then be presented at
further public consultations. EH can send this information to us. She feels that the
CCG has listened and noted that the CCG is also exploring possible service changes
for young people moving from child care to adult care.
b) The merger of the two Newcastle CCG’s and Gateshead CCG is now complete and
the new Newcastle Gateshead Alliance operational.
c) The Health and Social Care agenda will be ready in July and is currently being
considered by GP’s.
d) New CCG contracts and procurements in the future will be determined by qualitative , not just quantitative, criteria.
5.AOB:
a) EH informed group that on Friday 12th June from 6-7 at the Collingwood Suite at
the Newcastle City Centre, there will be a consultation about NHS diabetic eye
screening open to all diabetic patients.
b) The Acorn Group is interested in receiving PPG members email addresses.Query
whether this is a good idea as list of emails could quickly go out of date.
c) At ACORN, PPG groups are reported to be querying how practices deal with complaints. KR to provide samples at a future meeting.
d) Next Acorn meeting 24th September 2015 at Thornfield Medical Group at Molineux Street. Molineux Street NHS Centre, Byker, Newcastle upon Tyne NE6 1SG
7. Next PPG meeting 16th September 2015