NEWSLETTER
Church Street Practice
Patient Involvement Group
Number 66 Winter 2016
CHURCH STREET PRACTICE PATIENT INVOLVEMENT GROUP
AGM 10TH NOVEMBER 2015
The AGM was held in the Church Street Practice waiting room and was
preceded at 7.30 pm by questions from PIG patients answered by a panel from
the Practice.
Receptionist Manager Jane King [JK], Dr Matthew Gaw [MG], Practice
Manager Kate Blowfield [KB], Emergency Care Practitioner Hannah Wilkinson
[HW] and Dr Liz Mackenzie [LM].
Questions had been submitted to Jean and others were requested from the
floor.
1: What exactly does a Practice Manager do?
KB answered this question by introducing herself; she oversees the day-to-day
running of the Practice, e.g. HR, contracts, finance. She is like a business
manager and this is where her previous experience lies. She oversees Jill
Koch, IT Manager; Jane King, Reception Manager; Mary Elliott, advanced
nurse practitioner; these three are lead co-ordinators for their teams.
1a: Could the Practice function without a manager? If yes, then why do we
need one; if no, why not?
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MG: the practice could not function without a manager to run the day to day
matters and staffing. A manager must be a people-person, someone who can
manage the doctors and who realises that the needs of patients come first. The
Practice is pleased to have Kate as part of the team.
2: We are constantly being told that the NHS is in a parlous state. Is there
anything we, as patients, can do to help?
LM: people must take responsibility for their own health; their health is most
important to themselves. For example: phone reception to follow up blood test
results; let the GP know if no appointment arrives from the hospital after a
referral has been made.
JK: think ahead about what you want to discuss with the GP, the time you’ll
need, and remember there are other practitioners not just GPs available.
MG: agreed that patients must take responsibility for their own health. The NHS
is not good at fostering this. The NHS drive is towards making people healthier
but this needs a degree of common sense. There is huge wastage – particularly
with missed appointments and prescriptions. The PIG audience this evening is
most likely not part of the problem as they are people with an interest in the
Practice.
LM: It is very important to cancel unwanted appointments.
HW: If you are expecting a call from the surgery please keep the line free; a lot
of time is wasted trying to contact people.
JK: remember the surgery number will be withheld if you have a phone that
only accepts recognised numbers.
3: How many Consultant led clinics are there in Wantage?
MG: the surgery has no control over these; at the moment there are 2 –
ophthalmology and rheumatology. Both ENT and gynaecology no longer come
here but would if the Oxford Hospitals would allow. It is hoped ENT will return. If
there were a drive to move services from central Oxford to the community
Wantage would probably lose out to Didcot .
Jean Sutherland commented that in her experience rheumatology offered a
better service when it came to the Health centre.
4: The Practice is centrally situated between Wantage and Grove; both are
expanding and may in time look like one. What is the forward thinking towards a
more integrated health service at the site to include minor operations etc thus
reducing the demand on the major hospitals where appropriate? Perhaps GPs
would welcome a broader scope of work and thus attract more candidates to
general practice.
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MG: there is no health representative advising on housing plans; 5,000 new
homes are proposed, that means approx. 15,000 new patients to be absorbed
by Church Street and Newbury Street practices. When considering how the site
could be best used for patients need to remember these practices will be
competing for money with all Oxfordshire practices. A bigger group of GPs
would mean a bigger group of special interest portfolios, but in general GPs
don’t want to specialise and this could mean fewer doctors becoming GPs.
LM: GPs who specialise in one aspect of patient care must also maintain their
GP skills/knowledge; specialisation could have the effect of de-skilling other
GPs in a practice. GP recruitment is in a very bad state – there were no
applicants for a GP position recently advertised at Church Street. It is hard work
with long hours and this makes doctors think hard about doing GP work and
makes recruitment harder.
HW: acute conditions can be dealt with by nurse practitioners and emergency
care practitioners (like Hannah). Patients must let go of their need to always
see a GP.
JK: It is difficult to convince people they are not getting less of a service if they
don’t see the GP; nurse practitioners and emergency care practitioners don’t
offer a second class service.
5: Does the proposal of a new leisure centre impact on the plans of the practice
and future health facilities on the site?
KB: the practice will keep an eye on planning applications and act
appropriately.
6: What is the “Hub”?
HW: the Prime Minister set up a Challenge Fund to support health care - to
reduce admissions to hospital and improve care of the elderly. Practices belong
to Federations, the Vale Federation to which Church Street belongs applied to
have a facility for both early visiting of patients and a Neighbourhood Access
Hub which should release time for GPs to see patients with complex needs.
The Hub has therefore been set up to provide acute care for minor illnesses to
help free up GP time. It has only recently started and the benefits/ effects/
results have yet to be seen.
KB: an appointment at the Hub is made through the surgery in the usual way.
MG: patients have to give permission for the practitioner at the Hub to treat
them: the practitioners will be associated with but not part of Church Street
Practice therefore permission is needed for them to access the patients’ notes.
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JK: at the moment it takes a little longer to book an appointment at the Hub, but
this will get quicker.
7: No-show appointments are a problem: do you take any action?
MG: health care is free and some people just don’t value it.
A discussion followed between the floor and the panel: How many
appointments are missed? what percentage of the total? can a reminder be
sent? the cost of sending reminders versus the cost of missed appointments?
Between 5% and 10% of appointments are missed; SMS message reminders
are sent; hospitals send reminder letters but the cost to the Practice would be
prohibitive. Patients who genuinely forget do phone to apologise. There are
serial “do-not-attenders” and they are known to the receptionists. When patients
arrive late they generally have to miss the appointment or it pushes others back
and becomes stressful for both patients and GPs; some patients arrive late
thinking the GP will be running late.
It is difficult to hold a balance between appointments that can be booked on the
day and the number booked in advance.
HW commented that Church Street Practice GPs do more sessions per week
than many other surgeries and seem to have a good balance.
Jean closed the session by thanking the panel and commenting that in most
cases people are very happy with the treatment they receive. Christine Lisi
MINUTES OF AGM
Jean welcomed everyone and introduced herself, reminding the meeting of the
deaths this year of May Paul and Henry Midwinter both long term, stalwart
members of PIG. A minute’s silence was held to remember them both.
The AGM followed (at 8.30) and was attended by about 50 people including
PIG Committee members Jean Sutherland, Christine Lisi, Connie Tonks, Jill
Kowszun, Janet Shepherd, Bridget Benn, Francis Sketch and Peter Bowen.
Apologies were received from Sue Hannon and Richard Hummerston.
Connie Tonks reported on her meetings with the area manager and staff
at Lloyds pharmacy in the Health Centre:
Results of the ‘Friends and Family’ survey this summer exposed a problem that
some patients encountered with local pharmacies (mainly Lloyds). The main
findings were as follows: there were delays in providing ordered prescriptions
promptly, with some backlogs of up to a week; sometimes there were long waits
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for immediately issued prescriptions on exit from the GPs (often over 20
minutes).
I took the problem to the area manager at Lloyds pharmacy only as I use Lloyds
and have only been involved with this particular pharmacy. I had a meeting with
the area manager, who agreed there was a problem. The staff at Lloyds were
always polite but overworked. Sometimes they were getting backlash from the
public.
Outcome: A new system will start in the New Year, where routine prescriptions
will be sent electronically to a central hub and delivered back to the shop the
next day ready for distribution. This will allow staff to deal with the ‘on the day’
requirements and devote more time to do preventative work e.g. diabetes care,
blood pressure checks etc.
We all hope that the service from Lloyds will improve for patients very soon.
The staff have been very cooperative with me.
Jean Sutherland gave the Chair’s report:
This has been a sad year for PIG, as well as being the chair of PIG for so long
May Paul was a personal friend to many of us. We miss her.
This year was the 25th anniversary of the founding of Pig and in normal
circumstances we may well have held a celebration this evening. We must
consider the future of PIG and how to make it representative of the patients of
the Practice.
Last year’s AGM, a talk on police and mental health was very much appreciated
but quite poorly attended compared to the usual turn-out. The committee would
be very interested to hear of any topics you would like us to cover at the AGMs,
perhaps a panel of pharmacists from the local pharmacies?
At our first committee meeting we will be deciding whether we should hold
some sort of event, it is some time since we did one and again we would
welcome ideas. To remind you of some, as well as retirement parties for longserving doctors, we have held 2 big health watch days in what was then the
Civic Hall, we combined with LINK for a smaller version in this building, we
held a healthy eating day outside Waitrose and we published “A Day in the life
of Church Street Practice” which I think I can say went nationwide, or nearly.
This year as you will hear from Jill we have helped a little with the Friends &
Family initiative but apart from that and the Newsletter there have been no
other events.
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If you did not fill in our little questionnaire at the flu clinics please feel free to
add you names if you wish to be contacted by email or are willing to help at
events.
Jean Sutherland gave the Treasurer’s report:
Finance: At the moment I am still treasurer but there is a volunteer who will ask
to be elected at the first committee meeting!
PAID IN
PAID OUT
BALANCE
197.83
12.05 (donations)
42:00 (paper for news)
50.33 (hire charge)
CLOSING BALANCE
207.88
167.88
117.55
117.55
I have agreed with Kate that in future coloured paper for the newsletter cover
will be bought directly by the practice as that is where most of our income
comes from anyway. The donation box is on the counter, if we decide to hold
an event that will need funding. (Only £2 received)
Jean Sutherland reported on the Newsletter:
We aim to publish three or four newsletters annually. Since the launch of the
lovely new practice web-site, which I hope all of you with access to a computer
have used, you can now read the latest editions, and maybe eventually
archived copies, on line. We can also email copies to you on request. I believe
you may also be able to download directly from the web but I haven’t tried that
myself. I have started a series on “A day in the life of... people who work or
volunteer in Health Care but are not employed by a medical practice. We
started with a First Responder and next year we will definitely have one from
the people who whizz around on motor-bikes with blood, etc. And I hope to
have one from a carer.
As you know we published a special memorial edition containing a few of our
memories of May, which is also on the web.
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Jean Sutherland reported on the Diabetic Group:
I am also responsible for the Diabetes support group which meets on alternate
months starting in February. For the past year or two we have met on the first
Thursday but for 2016 we will be meeting on the first Monday. We have had
quite a good year with the occasional patient from next door dropping in: we
have had an exercise session from Generation Games , an off –shoot of Age
UK; talks on diabetic retinopathy research; visits from Mary & Kate; a third
Q.&A. session from Dr Garry Tan; and a discussion session. If you know of
anyone who has diabetes but doesn’t know about the group please let them
know.
Christine Lisi reported on the PIG archives:
After May had died her daughters bequeathed several boxes of PIG papers to
me. Jean, Sue and I spent an afternoon sorting through them; May had kept
every letter sent and received and every article of interest since the beginning
of PIG. We made the decision to throw most of it away, keeping only minutes
and newsletters. These are now filed in date order and are stored (or soon will
be stored) at the Practice with Kate. There is also a USB stick with all the PIG
documents from May’s computer.
Jill Kowszun reported on Intercare:
Last year I told you how we were continuing to recycle unused medicines from
patients of our practice, by sending them every six weeks or so to Intercare, a
firm in Leicester who in turn sent them off to needy clinics in Africa. Since 1974
this firm has sent over £12 million worth of medical aids to units in Africa and
approximately 10 million people have benefitted. Sadly for us this is no longer
going to happen. In 2011 the EU adopted the Falsified Medicines Directive, a
sort of Health and Safety measure for medicines. In 2013 Intercare obtained a
wholesalers’ licence so they could continue to send aid to Africa. However the
new EU directive this year requires an unbroken licensed audit trail from
manufacturer to end users of medicines. Intercare is failing to comply with this
because they receive medicines which are in effect waste from GP surgeries
which do not have a wholesalers’ licence. So they can no longer send these
recylcled medicines. Instead they will only be able to send medical supplies
such as dressings, instruments and appliances (I have a list from their website
of the items they can and cannot take), plus surplus medicines which they can
purchase direct from pharmaceutical firms. We have decided to discontinue
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donating to Intercare because the amount of the required medical items we can
collect is so small it would not be worth continuing, and so regretfully we will
cease operating our collection. Thanks to everyone who has supported us in
the past.
Jill Kowszun reported on the Family and Friends Survey:
For about a year the PIG committee and other volunteers have been helping to
operate this system, which GP practices were required by the NHS/Department
of Health to carry out in their surgeries. We ask people visiting the surgery if
they would fill in one of the survey sheets while they are waiting. The sheeta
are available at the reception desk at all times but we get a better response if
folk are asked directly, and very few refuse to oblige. The sheet asks two
questions: one is mandatory and asks if you would recommend this surgery to
family and friends (as per the directive) and the second question is one of the
surgery’s choice. The current question is as follows: The Practice has an
automated booking-in terminal next to reception, which allows you to advise the
healthcare professional that you are waiting. On your visit today: 1. did you
book in using the touchscreen? [Yes/No]; 2. if you did was it easy to use?
[Yes/No], if not what was the problem?; 3. If not, what was the reason for not
using it? We have been pleased with the response to this survey; our surgery is
well up the list of total responses in Oxfordshire.
COMMITTEE ELECTION:
Jean reminded the meeting we should have 7 elected members plus any others
the committee wishes to co-opt - we already have three and there are two
others who have expressed an interest but are not here. All present members
are willing to stand again and they can be elected en bloc unless anyone else
wishes to stand as a permanent member in which case there will be an
election. The committee should really be representative of the whole patient list
which we patently are not. The officers are elected at the first committee
meeting. Kate and Dr Arthur (if she is not holding a surgery) also attend our
meetings.
Jeanne Felmingham proposed the re-election of the committee en bloc,
seconded by Jim Kowszun.
Two people in the audience volunteered to get involved. (Hurrah!)
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The next committee meeting is on Tuesday 8th December at 11 am followed by
a lunch (a new innovation) at Wildwood in Wantage.
From the floor Judy House and Monica Hainge both said they were happy to
continue distributing newsletters locally. Judy suggested others could be
encouraged to do the same.
The meeting ended at 8.50 pm with thanks from Jean.
Christine Lisi
DIABETES SUPPORT GROUP
The next meeting of the group will be on MONDAY Feb.1 st, the speaker is Dr.
Andreas Themistocleous PhD FCP9SA) Clinical Research Fellow in Neurology
who will talk to us about the effects of Diabetes on our whole bodies.
NB Please note the change of our meeting day to Monday, still 2.00-4.00pm in
the Health Education Room, I hope this will mean that those members who had
to drop out when we had to change to Thursday will now be able to join us
again. The dates for the rest of the year are the first Monday in alternate
months, April 4th, June 6th, August 1st, October 3rd, Kath Roberts, Counsellor,
Dec.5th. As you will see I have not, so far been able to fix for certain the other
days. I am waiting to hear back from Diabetes UK and Community dieticians.
Sometimes wheels grind exceedingly slowly! We will also have one or two
discussion sessions which are always enjoyable and helpful. Jean Sutherland
PRACTICE NEWS
As mentioned in the previous newsletter we now have a new GP,
Dr Nicky Jacobsen, who started with us in November and will be working with
us on Mondays and Wednesdays.
Staffing:
One of our valued practice nurses, Zoe Young, left us in November, to move to
pastures new. However we have been extremely fortunate in recruiting Donna
Jacob, an experienced practice nurse who joined us on 2 December from
Kennington Health Centre.
We have also welcomed a new member of staff to our prescriptions/
administration team, Julie Roberts.
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Flu: We are now well into the flu season, if you are eligible for a flu jab and
would still like one please call the practice to book an appointment. In addition
if you are responsible for a child who is eligible for a fluenz vaccination and you
would like to book an appointment then please call our reception team who will
be happy to arrange this for you.
Neighbourhood Access Hub: As some of you may have already
experienced, the surgery now has access to a new initiative called the
Neighbourhood Access Hub. The practice is a member of the federated group
in South West Oxfordshire called ‘ValeMed’ and this service has been set up by
the PML-run federation using Prime Minister Challenge Fund money to help GP
practices meet the increasing demand for urgent same day appointments.
When you contact us in future for a same day appointment you may now be
offered an appointment at the Hub. The booking process takes slightly longer
as we need to ask you a few more questions to ensure that the Hub is the right
appointment for you.
You will not be seen by your usual GP as the Hub is staffed by an alternate GP
as well as an Advanced Nurse Practitioner as required. Your medical records
will be updated following the consultation to ensure that your records remain
complete and up to date. Please be assured that your records are shared in
complete confidence and only with your consent.
We hope that if you are offered an appointment at the Hub you will find it meets
your needs however if you would like to provide us with any feedback of your
experience then please e-mail churchstreetpractice@nhs.net as this initiative
is currently in its pilot phase and feedback is extremely welcome.
The Hub’s normal operating hours are 9.00 to 6.00 and it is situated on the first
floor of the Wantage Health Centre. Attendance is by appointment only which
is made through the usual booking process by calling reception on 01235
770245.
Should you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask our Reception staff.
Kate Blowfield, Practice Manager
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LETTERS
Intercare
Dear Patients,
Thank you for helping the staff at Church Street Surgery, by bringing in your
surplus medicines and recycling NHS waste. Unfortunately, new legislation has
recently been introduced which means that when a medicine has been
prescribed it can no longer be returned, due to the risk of fake medicines
getting into the supply chain. We sincerely hope you will continue to support
this recycling initiative with non-medicine items, which aren’t affected by this
legislation. These include dressings, bandages, nebulisers etc. For a complete
list please speak to the surgery direct. We are very grateful for your support,
Kind regards, Charlotte Wright, “Intercare-medical aid for Africa”
Dear Editor,
My wife, who is a Coeliac, and I recently attended a Coeliac meeting, where
Tesco's were introducing a 'New Range of GF breads and cakes.
Over the last years my wife has tried ALL the GF breads, and none compare to
'proper' bread and they are so expensive - usually about £3.00 per loaf.
We had no expectations when we tried the 'Sliced Seeded Bread'. We were
surprised it tasted fine, was only £2.00 per loaf and even eaten as a sandwich
was very acceptable, unlike normal GF bread.
As my wife's GP is always interested we took her half a slice and when she
tried it she said "If you hadn't told me, I wouldn't have thought that was a GF
bread".
We now go to Abingdon and buy a month's supply, and freeze those not for
immediate use. Unfortunately it is not available on prescription, despite the
lower cost than all other brands we have tried
PS. The chocolate cake is also very acceptable, and I am the only one who
likes chocolate cakes!!
F.G.S.
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Dear Editor,
Medicines For Africa
Volunteer helpers from the Church Street Practice have been recycling unused
and in date medicines to send to Africa for about 5 years via Intercare.
This part of Intercare's work is being discontinued.
I would like to thank volunteers for their work in tackling this very useful
project and to Dr Arthur for getting us started and supporting us.
Thanks for the patience of the office staff who have been particularly helpful in
the last few months coping with a new system
The volunteers are::Jill Kowszon, Pam Lidsey, Bridget Benn, Mary Bowen
Janet Shepherd
Joyce Coombs
If you don’t wish to keep this newsletter please pass it on, especially if
you know someone who has difficulty getting out. We have learned that
some patients who love the newsletter sometimes have problems in
obtaining a copy.
The editor thanks everyone who has contributed to this Newsletter which is
prepared and compiled by and on behalf of the patients of Church Street
Practice.
Suggestions, letters, articles and ideas are always welcome.
Please contact:
Jean
868396
jean@jcsutherland.wanadoo.co.uk
churchstreetpig@gmail.com Practice website
(which includes PIG Information)
www.wantagechurchstreet.co.uk
Also please use the PIG suggestion box in the waiting room. Thank-you, editor.
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