PATIENT PARTICIPATION GROUP MEETING 21/11/13
Practice staff present:
Doctor Priya Sandhu
Ann Crosby, Practice Manager
Marion Dobinson, Practice Nurse
Patient reference group members present:
Mr G Young
Mr A Kumar
Mr W Scott (uta)
Mr M Masters (uta)
Miss J Payne (uta)
Mrs P Robb (uta)
Mr C Bailey (uta)
Copies of the 2013/2014 patient survey results had been sent out to the patient group
members but Ann explained that the practice had yet to discuss the findings of the survey
with the staff and clinicians at the practice. This will be done at the next staff meeting which
is being held on 27/11/13 and the next clinical meeting on 5/12/13. Any findings or
comments from today’s meeting will be taken to the staff meeting and the clinical meeting.
All the findings will be discussed and an action plan agreed when the patient group next
meets on Thursday 27/2/14.
Overall 90% of the patient ratings about the practice were good, very good or excellent.
This was 1% down on last year’s survey. 16 ratings were above or the same as the national
benchmark and 12 were just below the national benchmark. This was very similar to last
year’s figures which were 15 and 13 respectively.
Ann asked for any comments on the results of the survey in particular the comments made
by individual patients.
56% of the comments were very positive and praised the practice and its staff for the
services provided. 13% of the comments were regarding dissatisfaction with the
appointment system because of the inability to book appointments in advance. Everyone at
the meeting were very surprised that yet again the fact that patients couldn’t book
appointments in advance had been highlighted by the patient survey. One of the priorities
from our action plan following last years patient survey had been to raise patients awareness
of the advanced access appointment system and other services offered by the practice. This
has been done through a rigorous advertising campaign using all the media possible (not
just following the last patient survey but over the course of the last few years). We have
leaflets and posters in the waiting room. We use the television screen, the repeat
prescription request slip, the practice leaflet, practice website and the practice newsletter to
promote the services we offer and to inform patients of the advanced access appointment
system yet there are still patients who do not know how the appointment system works and
what other services are offered by the practice. We all agreed we were at a loss to know
what else we could do to get the message across to those patients other than an ongoing
patient education programme. It was suggested that many people just don’t read what is
available to them regarding the practice.
Mr Kumar had raised this as a concern last year and Marion asked him if he and his family
were still having problems booking appointments in advance and he said they were not and
were now specifically asking to book the next pre bookable appointment.
Being able to book appointments and order repeat prescriptions on line is something the
practice has signed up to and will be available to our patients in 2015.
We discussed the waiting room which again was one of our priorities in our action plan
following the last patient survey. This is an ongoing project which very much relies on
funds available with regards to decoration but we make sure the waiting is always kept
clean and tidy. We are restricted to what toys we have in the waiting room and need to
consider health and safety and infection control. We have had a tea machine in the waiting
room in the past which caused lots of problems when it was broken and we decided that
having hot drinks where there was children wasn’t a good idea. We play music in the
waiting room in order to give more privacy to patients when talking to the receptionist. We
have a notice saying that if a patient wants to talk to a receptionist privately then they just
have to ask and they will be taken to a room away from the waiting room. From experience
the patient group members said that often when patients are at the reception desk people
stand right behind you when queuing at the desk.
A patient could not get time off from work for her b12 injection which are given in the
treatment room clinics in the morning, therefore we arranged for our practice nurse to give
the injection in an early evening clinic.
We all felt that there were no problems with accessing an appointment at the practice and
no problem with patients being seen the same day or within 48 hours which was confirmed
by the results of the survey. It wasn’t always possible to see a doctor of your choice if you
were requesting an appointment on the same day, it would depend on which doctors were on
that day. Time spent in the waiting room waiting for your appointment did not seem to
cause too much concern but it was agreed that some patients did take longer than others if
the problem was more complicated and sometimes locum doctors, used when a doctor was
on holiday, spent a little bit more time with patients as they do not know the patients history
like the practice doctors do. If a doctor was running late the receptionist would always
advise the patients that this was the case.
Ann explained who the Care Quality Commission were and that they would be visiting the
practice at some point and would want to talk to patients as well as admin staff and
clinicians. There was general discussion regarding the politics behind a lot of the
government decision making and reforms.
Ann explained to the patient group members that there is a big department of health drive
to reduce A & E attendances and emergency admissions which have a huge impact on
finances within the NHS. The North East of England has the highest rate of emergency
admissions in the whole of the country. On a more local level, the cost of A & E attendances
and emergency admissions has a big impact on the finances of each individual practice. We
have been trying for many years to reduce these figures and think of ways to prevent
patients from choosing A & E instead of the other more appropriate services. There was
general discussion regarding the measures we have already taken to try and resolve this
issue and the general consensus was that unless people were charged or penalized in some
way for their abuse/inappropriate use of systems then we would not change their behaviour.
Ann informed the patient group members of the NHS antibiotic campaign “Keep calm and
look after yourself” who had produced a very good leaflet on general advice for the winter
and advice on how you can treat some of the common winter illnesses including flu and
colds. The group members were also given a copy of a newsletter from Keep Our NHS
Public North East for their information. Keep Our NHS Public North East is a group of
local North East people who strongly believe that the NHS should remain a public service
and not become privatised. They are made up of doctors, nurses and other health
professionals and members of the general public who believe in the NHS.
The date and time of the next meeting will be Thursday 27/2/14 at 1.00. We will try and
encourage more patients to joint the group and Ann will contact all members of the group
by letter and by phone nearer to the time of the meeting.
Ann explained that the 2012/2013 patient survey had just been completed and we will get the
results in about four week’s time. We will have another meeting at the end of March to
discuss the results of the survey and agree an action plan for the following twelve months.
Ann gave Mr Young and Mr Kumar a copy of the patient survey questionnaire to remind
them what the questions were.
The action plan for 2011/12 was reviewed and the following points discussed.
1.
All patients are offered telephone triage if they do not need an appointment as well as
being offered telephone triage when there are no appointments left on that day. We have
telephone triage slots every morning and every afternoon. All staff have continuing
education sessions and all staff are aware of what is appropriate for a telephone triage
appointment and where to put patients with the appropriate health care professional.
2.
We have given the waiting room some what of a make over but still need to finish the
job. We got rid of the old plants and the old toys and took down all the old posters. We
need to be giving patients important information but struggle to keep the leaflets tidy and
east to access. We did consider buying a leaflet rack to keep the leaflets out of reach of
“little fingers” but these were extremely expensive unless you opted for a commercial stand
which would be given free of charge with the proviso that we only displayed their own
leaflets which we felt unable to justify doing because of what the possible content would be.
Mr Young said that he would enquire about the possibility of getting a leaflet rack from his
daughter’s place of work.
We have also improved the lighting in the waiting room and we all agreed that what we do
in the waiting area is very much dependant on health and safety regulations. We discussed
the possibility of using the television for advertising our own and other local services and
Ann will look into how this can be done. Both Mr Young and Mr Kumar agreed that the
television in the waiting room was a good idea and was watched by patients and that it was
absolutely fine having no sound coming from the television but only music playing in the
background.
3.
We had decided to use the CFEP survey once again as we felt that trying to set up
our own practice survey would be time consuming and a huge amount of work. We also felt
we could not improve on what was currently being offered by CFEP. This is a highly
respectable company used by a lot of NHS organisations and it provides valuable patient
feedback and is a reliable and sensible tool.
Ann informed the patients about the North Tyneside Clinical Commissioning Group patient
forum which is now recruiting. This is for one or two patients from each GP patient group
to attend a North Tyneside wide patient form where you can gather views, share valuable
patient experience and work as a team with other patients. Ann will inform the patients
when the first meeting will be held. (The initial meeting in January was cancelled due to
bad weather).
The patients were asked if they had anything to add or any comments to make about the
practice and the services offered by the practice. Mr Young had already expressed how
very satisfied he was with the practice and had given an example of treatment he had
received in hospital and the help given to him by one of the GPs following this treatment.
He felt that all patients should be grateful for the services given by the practice and couldn’t
understand why some people were not.
Mr Kumar also agreed with Mr Young but raised concerns regarding not being able to book
appointments in advance and having to ring back the next day. Marion explained the
appointment system to Mr Kumar, advising him of how we have five pre-bookable
appointments in every surgery and surgeries are bookable up to three weeks in advance.
She suggested that when next ringing for a routine appointment he or his family should ask
the receptionist for the next pre-bookable appointment which could be in two, three days or
one week or two weeks time, whatever the patient wanted. Marion also advised Mr Kumar
of the late surgery run one evening every week at Killingworth. It was agreed that staff
should be reminded to offer patients the next pre-bookable appointment when patients are
ringing in or coming in to make an appointment. It was also agreed that often people who
don’t attend the surgery regularly do not understand how the practice systems work. Ann
would also look into putting all this information on the television regarding the appointment
system and advanced booking and details of the late surgeries.
Mr Young raised a concern he had regarding the local chemist not having all his medication
in stock when he goes to collect his prescription and having to call back to the chemist to
collect the remainder of his tablets. The practice felt that unfortunately there wasn’t much
they could do to change this situation other than to feed back to the chemist the concerns
raised. Another suggestion was to have the medication delivered but this would mean
having to stay in until it was delivered.
Ann thanked everyone for attending and the next meeting was arranged for Thursday 21st
March 2012 at 1pm. Ann will confirm the date and time beforehand.