Patient Participation Group

Meeting from 27th January 2016

Agenda Topics

Welcome and Introduction

Emma welcomed all present to our first PPG meeting and introduced each member to one another.

Aims and Objectives

Emma outlined the plans, aims and objectives and purpose of the PPG meetings, In that we need to work together as a team and welcomed any questions, comments and suggestions from anyone in the group on how they think that perhaps things could be ran better or any queries on our practice services and commitment to our patients. It was agreed that we need a range of different age groups and backgrounds and welcome different opinions from different patients and their needs or expectations, and therefore asked our members if they knew of any other friends/patients within this practice who might also be interested in joining the group.

Survey for Patients

Emma covered the purpose of the Patient Participation Independent Survey for any members who were not aware of this, and explained that the this is a feedback tool that supports the fundamental principle that people who use our services should have the opportunity to provide feedback on their experience that can be used to improve services. We are starting to log results which will help us improve our services, and can be also used as a discussion tool in our meetings. Also discussed was how some Practices are having patient support groups and we will be quite happy to know if this or anything else is something we could work towards.

Dr Myint came into the meeting to introduce herself to the members.

What do we expect to achieve from our meetings

General discussion asking the members of the group if they have any ideas on how we can better things or if they can see anything from their aspect that they need to know more about. As things can look different from our perspective / patient’s perspective.

Members asked how many patients we had in the practice etc, and in general an overview was given of how many patients and what staff we had working here, including what each of our nurses covered if any members were unsure, and Emma advised also that our nurses here had been trained and were insured to go out into the community for flu jabs, dressing etc, if any of our patients were not covered and if needed from district nurses.

One nurse for one only one service = Questions were raised from some of the group members as there seems to be more frustration at what services are carried out by which nurses, e.g., a patient can have one visit for dressing but then another nurse would have to visit for tinzaparin, and why can’t they both be done by the same District Nurse. We tried to explain that the team were ran very differently now from years ago when they were based with us here, and looked after certain patients, and explained the Single Point of Access Service. We also explained that our practice nurses were trained in different areas and ran certain clinics separately and exclusively, but would incorporate different disease management and services if needed.

One member brought up the subject of her husband having to visit several different areas and services and clinics for different reasons, i.e., Lawson Street for some services, Billingham Health Centre and others for different services. All members agreed this was not good. There was also frustration at being told podiatry etc. cannot be booked few months in advance – told to ring few weeks before due – then pts told no appointments for six weeks!

We also agreed that it was a far better service when services were all help under one (or two roofs) but some services we felt had been reduced due to lack of funding and some sent out of the area i.e, podiatry to secondary care centres. Also discussed the fact that some podiatrists were going private due to cut backs which had an impact. Too long waiting times for podiatry and some other services were also mentioned.

Other news

Emma discussed our practice website services, some of the group did not know about the website and were advised about the booklets on reception desk but we agreed that perhaps we need better posters etc. to advertise services.

Karen Taylor who some patients might remember was part of our practice District Nursing Team was joining this practice in the near future to join our Practice Nursing Staff.

Outcomes/AOB

Mr N was happy that he now had Sue our Practice Nurse keeping him right, and all in all the members expressed that they had never had any complaints about any of our services or staff. We thanked them for that but expressed that we were more than happy to resolve any issues if they did have them and again would welcome any opinions on helping our services improve. Mr H asked Emma to look into magnetic/ button access for his wheelchair so he could come unaccompanied and this was duly noted and will be looked into.

All attendees thanked for coming.

Date and time of next meeting - to be announced soon