Wetherby Surgery
Patient Participation Group Meeting 06/03/2013
Present - Dr Nick Ibbotson, Dr Jacquilyn Aitken, Dr Claire Dickson, Mr Mike
Mack-Smith (Practice Manager), Mrs Linda Robinson (Receptionist), Mrs
Lindsay Ibbotson (guest) and 13 patient members.
Apologies- Sister Louise Squires (Practice Nurse).
Dr Aitken welcomed the group and invited all to introduce themselves. She
then reiterated the PPG ground rules followed by a run through of the minutes
of the inaugural meeting of 9/1/13 and it was agreed that they were an
accurate reflection of that meeting.
Agenda Items
Prior to embarking upon discussion of the agenda items, several members
wanted to discuss car parking at the Wetherby site, a subject which had been
raised as a problematic issue at the inaugural meeting. The following queries
were raised:

What were the original conditions of the planning permission for the
Health Centre and parking area

Does the entire parking area belong to the Health Centre or is part of it
Council-owned land and therefore what rights to parking here have the
general public (Morrisons customers and school traffic in particular)

Would a sign warning that inappropriately parked vehicles will be
clamped help deter abuse of parking slots intended for Surgery and
Health Centre patients (even if we had no means of clamping!)

One member summarised the results of his informal survey of usage
of the car park most notably the fact that there are often many cars
parked here long before the surgery has opened ie not patients
It was agreed that the Practice Manager would make contact with the owner
of the building to discussncar parking facilities and further action will depend
on the response. He will also talk to the Health Centre staff to see whether
their service users find car parking as difficult as many patients at our
Surgery
Reflection on the results of the Patient Survey
A summary of the results had been circulated to PPG members prior to the
meeting. It was agreed that the main problem areas were:

Getting through on the phone at 8am to book a same day appointment

Lack of awareness of option to pre-book up to 2 weeks in advance

Lack of awareness that for genuinely urgent problems you can always
be seen that same day

A level of dissatisfaction with opening hours
It was agreed that the practice would undertake an analysis of appointment
demand; by assessing what type of appointments (face to face, telephone,
GP, Nurse) are wanted on which days and at which times, it is hoped that we
can take steps to rearrange our appointment slots more appropriately
throughout the week. We hope to undertake this analysis over a 2 week
period in April.
We also agreed that we will look at releasing next day appointments for those
patients who ring requesting a same day appointment when all the routine
appointments are already fully booked (currently these patients are advised to
ring back at 8am the next day, a situation unanimously agreed to be inefficient
and unsatisfactory).
We also plan to look at how we release pre-bookable appointments (current
situation being > most of the afternoon slots and a small number of morning
slots are pre-bookable 2 wks in advance, the remaining appointments are
reserved to be booked on the day; is there a better way?).
Finally, due to positive feedback from those patients who already use our
telephone appointments and due to a lack of awareness of the existence of
this facility, we want to look at altering the balance of telephone versus face to
face appointments and we will also consider the option of introducing some
telephone appointments with the Nurse +/- HCA (may be particularly
appropriate for discussion of blood/urine/swab results).
Patient Transport
One of our PPG members (Mr S) who is involved with the charitable
organisation WiSE (Wetherby in Support of the Elderly) put forward the idea
of having a list of patients willing to provide transport for our older and/or
disabled patients to and from surgery +/- hospital appointments.
It was agreed that this was an excellent idea and further discussion between
Mr S and the Practice Manager is to occur at the earliest opportunity.
Ideas for future meetings
One of our members felt it would be interesting if the GPs were each to
prepare a short presentation on their areas of special clinical interest. The
GPs are happy to consider this.
Another member brought up the subject of the ‘Choose and Book’ hospital
appointments system, alluding to the problems posed in making an ‘informed
choice’ without necessarily having much concrete information about the
available Consultants/Hospitals/Specialties. This is an area we could usefully
discuss at a future meeting.
Practice Choir
Mrs Lindsay Ibbotson, Vocal Coach, was invited to talk about her ideas for
establishing a Practice Choir. She gave an interesting and enthusiastic
discussion of some of the evidence of the potential health benefits (physical
and psycho-social) associated with singing in a choir and also made some
suggestions for an initial repertoire. During the ensuing group discussion we
heard that the ‘singing for the brain’ sessions at WiSE are by far the best
attended of the activities on offer to the attendees and their carers, and we
also learned that several members already enjoy involvement in the choir of
the local ‘U3A’.
It was generally agreed that the establishment of a Practice Choir, open to
both staff and patients, was an idea well worth pursuing. The Practice
Manager agreed to ask the owners of the building whether we may use either
the surgery waiting room or Health Centre foyer as our venue (probably
Wednesday evenings, weekly or fortnightly), the aim being to get the choir up
and running as soon after Easter as practical. One of the PPG members
kindly offered his help in publicising the venture.
AOB
1) Dr Ibbotson reminded us of the impending demise of PCTs to be replaced
by Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) as of 1/4/13. Wetherby and
Harewood Surgeries will be part of the Leeds North CCG on the Board of
which Dr Ibbotson is Non Executive Director. He asked whether any of our
PPG members may be interested in representing our surgery, perhaps on a
rota basis, at future CCG Board meetings. This will help ensure our Practice
has a voice in future decisions around clinical service provision.
It was agreed that Dr Ibbotson will obtain the CCG Board meetings’ calendar
ready to share at our next PPG meeting.
2) One of our members told the group about a petition against the planned
closure of the Primrose Hill Care Home in Boston Spa (local Council spending
cuts). He had recently asked our Practice Manager whether he could site a
petition in the surgery but his request was refused due to concern that, as a
surgery, we should be seen as politically neutral. The member asked for the
decision to be reconsidered.
It was agreed by the GPs in a private discussion held immediately after the
PPG meeting closed that we should have a notice board in the waiting room
at the Wetherby site dedicated solely to PPG related materials. Anything on
this notice board will reflect the interests and activities of the PPG and it has
been agreed by the GPs and the manager that it is acceptable for a copy of
the petition to be placed here so that anyone can sign if they wish.
3) One of our members mentioned ongoing plans for building of (potentially
very large numbers of) new houses within our Practice boundary and there
followed a discussion of the impact this will ultimately have on our patient
population. Pros and cons were discussed briefly but obviously we cannot
fully understand the impact until we know the numbers. For discussion at a
future PPG meeting when appropriate.
Evaluation of the Meeting and Closing Remarks
The meeting over ran slightly and many members had other meetings and
commitments which necessitated their leaving promptly at 1930. Therefore
the evaluation and closing remarks were extremely brief, but it was generally
agreed that we had had another very useful meeting which provoked much
stimulating discussion and which has given us all plenty of food for thought.
It is envisaged that the PPG should meet approximately quarterly and Dr
Aitken will advertise the date and time of the next meeting in due course.