OAKLANDS SURGERY
PATIENT PARTICIPATION GROUP MEETING
HELD ON THURSDAY 10TH JULY 2014
Present:
Jane Greenfield
Joan Davies
June Reber
Chris Clark (Chair)
Irene Tearle
Teresa Springett
Sue Warren (Minutes)
1. Apologies
None received.
2. Minutes of last Meeting
The minutes of the last meeting were agreed.
3. Actions Points Arising from Last Meeting
Oaklands Telephone System
Discussions were still taking place with regard to the telephone system in the Central
Canvey Primary Care Centre. Further meetings were taking place over the next few months
and SW will report back to the Group once she had received further information.
On-Line booking of appointments
SW asked the PG members who had on-line access to the surgery booking-line whether
they had seen any improvements. The Practice had recently added extra slots to the system
and PG members gave a positive response. Extra slots would be added over the coming
months.
Commissioning
SW reported to the Group that the practice had won a number of contracts recently
commissioned. The contracts awarded were for 3 years. SW outlined the services as
follows:
Vasectomy Service
The aim of the service is to provide the safe delivery of a high quality vasectomy
service, including pre-operative counselling, in a safe, clean community setting.
The objectives of the service are to:
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To provide a high quality, cost effective local community vasectomy service
To provide services that complies with accepted best practice, relevant
accreditation processes and relevant guidelines in clinical practice.
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To provide an opportunity for men’s Health Promotion
Secondary Care Wound Management
The aim of the service is to ensure that patients are able to continue and complete
their treatment in the community, closer to home, without the need to return to
secondary care.
The objectives of the service are to:
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Improve patient access to treatment and care within the community
Demonstrate improved quality and effectiveness of services
Deliver an innovative approach to service provision
Reduce the number of follow ups in secondary care
The practice will carry out the following services:

Routine suture/clip/staple removal

Post-surgical wounds or trauma wounds that have initially been dealt with in
secondary care or Accident and Emergency, including monitoring of infection,
dehiscence (as appropriate) and haemorrhage/haematoma.
Referrals into the service may come from secondary care, accident and emergency,
walk in centres or GP practices.
24hr BP Monitoring
Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring permits the non-invasive measurement of
blood pressure over a prolonged period, usually 24 hours. It has become
increasingly popular in the assessment of hypertensive patients.
The aim of this service is to carry out Ambulatory Blood Pressure monitoring on
patients to:
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To provide a good quality, clinically robust ambulatory BP service.
To ensure diagnostic tests are of high quality, with timely reporting.
Ensure appropriate referral and management of patients.
To reduce first outpatient appointments/diagnostics tests in secondary care.
Avoid unnecessarily labelling patients as hypertensive.
Identify patients at increased cardiovascular risk because of hypertension
more accurately.
Initiate treatment for hypertension before the onset of target organ damage
Introduce the concept of patients self-monitoring
The objectives of the service are to:
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Provide patients with appropriate care outside of the acute setting and closer
to home.
Improve patient access to Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring.
Deliver an innovative approach to service provision
Demonstrate improved quality and effectiveness of services for patients who
require Ambulatory Bloor Pressure Monitoring
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DVT Service
The aim of the service is to provide initial DVT testing, D-Dimer test and a Wells
Score, to prevent patients with a negative DVT test attending secondary care
unnecessarily.
The objectives of the service are to:

Improve patient care and experience by offering assessment and initial
testing in primary care.
Reduce referrals to secondary care
Demonstrate improved quality and effectiveness of services for patients with
a negative DVT.
Deliver an innovative approach to service provision.
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Community Gonadorelin Analogue Service
The aim of the service is to provide treatment and support to patients who are on an
agreed Gonadorelin Analogue treatment plan including:
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A good quality of clinical care
Appropriate referral and management of patients
To reduce follow up appointments in secondary care
The objectives of the service are to:



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Provide patients with appropriate care outside of the acute setting and closer
to home.
Improve patient access to services.
Deliver an innovative approach to service provision.
Demonstrate improved quality and effectiveness of services for patients.
Minor Injuries Service
The aim of the service is to provide minor injury care in a community setting to
reduce A&E attendances.
The objectives of the service are to:
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Provide a range of minor injury services.
Improve patient access to treatment and care within the community
Demonstrate improved quality and effectiveness of services
Deliver an innovative approach to service provision
The minor injury services covered by this service are:
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Lacerations capable of closure by simple techniques
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Strips/application of adhesive skin closure
Gluing
Suturing
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Removal of corneal foreign body
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Partial thickness thermal burns or scalds involving broken skin, where
the clinician feels confident to assess and manage the burn or scald in
primary care.
Minor dislocation of phalanges
Removal of foreign bodies
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Members present felt that community services were good for patients on Canvey Island and
the surrounding areas.
BPH Service – Chris Clark
Chris had now received a reply to her letter regarding the Community BPH Service. CC
passed the letter to the patient group for their perusal. The letter stated that when the
service was reviewed (3 years from the date of commencement) it was found that only a
small number of practices and patients were accessing the BPH service and there was a 9%
increase in urology referrals. The decision to decommission the service was therefore
approved by the CCG reference group, local groups and the CCQ Quality & Governance
committee.
The Patient Group understood the reasoning behind the decision to decommission the
service but hoped that this decision would be reviewed again in the future.
4. Electronic Prescription Service
SW outlined the Electronic Prescription Service. This service enables prescribers, such as
GPs and practice nurses to send prescriptions electronically to a dispenser (such as a
pharmacy) of the patient’s choice. This makes the prescribing and dispensing process more
efficient and convenient for patients and staff. The practice is not yet enabled for this service
but it is hoped that the service will be available to the practice in the future.
5. Contractual Changes
The Practice had recently written to patients over the age of 75 providing them with a named
GP. The named GP will have overall responsibility for the care and support that the surgery
provides to them, however, this does not prevent them from seeing any GP in the practice.
6. Staffing
A number of staffing changes had been made over the last few months. SW outlined the
changes.
7. AOB
JG expressed to the group her concerns regarding a letter from a respite centre. The CQC
had recently visited the respite centre and highlighted some administering of medication
issues which required certain information to be disclosed by a GP. JG thought that it would
be a good idea to have a member of staff within the practice who could answer minor
medication queries, possibly a carer’s liaison, instead of going through a GP and wasting
valuable appointment times. SW informed the group that the practice did have a carer’s
liaison – Maureen Jefford and she would pass JGs concerns on to Maureen for action.
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8. Date of Next Meeting
Thursday 30th October 2014 at 12.15pm. Oaklands Surgery.
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