Meeting Minutes

Notes from Patient Participation Group Meeting

Held on Tuesday 24th May 2022 at 6.30pm.

Present:

  • Dr Jairam Kaasula – GP Partner
  • Scott Wellington – Patient
  • Dr Mamta Chada – GP Partner
  • Sue Brown – Patient
  • Jean Wellington – Practice Nurse
  • Helen Randall – Patient
  • Karen Malecki – Practice Manager
  • Elaine Dainty – Operations Manager

Apologies:

  • Stacey Evely – Patient
  • Diana Grina – Patien

1. Welcome and introductions

KM welcomed the group and each member introduced themselves

2. Covid

Practice Update – latest guidance

Government Guidelines still require masks to be worn by patients, visitors and staff in the surgery, together with PPE as and when appropriate although social distancing rules have ceased. Practice staff are also required to still test twice weekly regardless of whether they are symptomatic and these results are uploaded on the practice intranet. Stringent infection control has been fully implemented as a result of the pandemic.

 Vaccine success – Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire is in the top 10 in the county in terms of uptake and delivery of the vaccination programme.

3. NHS Update

HQ Primary Care Network – Overview

KM advised we are now part of a Primary Care Network (PCN), meaning we have joined together with Hadwen Medical Centre to provide various services across our areas. This enables us to share resources in order to bolster up the work already provided by GPs. New roles within this PCN will be outlined below.

PCN Projects – Frailty

This is a focussed piece of work being undertaken by the PCN. It will specifically target all patients who are 75 and above, on multiple medications and who are subject to unplanned admissions due to falls etc. This project will enable resources to provide follow up care and put plans in place to help prevent falls and admissions and to undertake regular medication reviews of our frail patients.

4. Staff

New Organisational Structure. These roles are new to QMC during the past 12 months

  • Practice Manager – Karen Malecki
  • Operations Manager – Elaine Dainty
  • Care Co-ordinators – Jackie Mulhall and Olivia Couston.  This role supports both GPs and patients. The CC’s can chase up referrals and appointments, offer support to patients to help signpost to various organisations eg: dementia, cancer charities, carers hubs etc. We also have a local care home for people with Learning Disabilities and they visit weekly to liaise with the manager and then report back to the GPs if there are any issues that need flagging up
  • Clinical Pharmacists – Clive Fisher and Reenal Patel (Reenal is provided by the CCG as an additional resource)
  • Registrars – This is a 6 month rotational role. We currently have Dr Rachel Underhill. She will be leaving in August and another registrar will join shortly thereafter
  • Medical Students – We are a training practice and have medical students in on Wednesdays and Thursdays each week
  • Physician Associates – This is relatively new concept but has been active in the USA for many years. It is very similar to the Nurse Practitioner role
  • Physiotherapist (PCN) – Sarah Green
  • Social Prescribers (PCN) – Ian Preston and Leia Pennell
  • Pharmacy Technician (PCN) – Lilyana Knight

5. Premises

New Extension at QMC

We are in the process of having an extension built – single storey to the right, double storey to the left and a storage facility to the rear. There has been some delay but the builders are planning to start on 6th June.  We will send out messages to all our patients and update our website accordingly. The PPG members were then shown the plans and drawings outlining proposed works. It is an exciting time for the practice but we are aware it will also be extremely challenging at the same time.

6. NHS IT Systems

Online patient access/Footfall/Dashboard/EConsult/Practice Website

There has been a good uptake for patients to register for online access. This enables them to order medication, view their records and recent test results.

We have been advised by CCG that they are decommissioning EConsult at the end of May so patients will now use Footfall/Dashboard as a way of contacting the practice as an alternative to making a phone call. This is also a very effective tool and is also being used alongside EConsult at present.  The practice website will

Social Media

We are in the process of opening a QMC Facebook account. This will be used predominantly as a broadcasting platform in order to keep our patients updated with changes and information and promote public health awareness programmes. This will be going live in the next couple of weeks.

Message Link

The practice has commissioned a telephone answering service called Message Link. The telephones automatically divert to this service at 18:00 each night in order for the team to finish their tasks; prepare the practice for surgery the next day and to implement the lock up process securely. Patients can still access the surgery via an emergency line and the front door also remains open until 18:30. The feedback from staff has been very positive to this and the PPG confirmed they were happy with us using this service.

7. Quality

Veterans Accreditation

KM advised that we have received the award as a veteran friendly practice. This means that any patients who are veterans or serving military personnel, together with their families, will be flagged up so we are aware they may need some extra support and sensitivity around their care. We will also post information on our website and subsequent Facebook page signposting these patients to any charities and support groups required.

Care Quality Commission Update (CQC)

We have been advised that we will be having an imminent inspection by the CQC. The date at the time of this meeting was given as 8th June, however this has been pushed back to 22nd June as they were unaware of the building work starting at the same time. KM advised the criteria has changed in recent times and will be heavily focussed on staff feedback, policies and Significant Events reporting and learning. The PPG have agreed that they are happy to be contacted by the CQC to give any feedback required.

Community Links

MC advised that 40% of our patients are under the age of 25. With this in mind we are looking to forge links with our local community to help promote health awareness and public health initiatives. It would be good to engage with some of the local schools and get them involved. We will be speaking to our social prescribers to discuss the best ways of getting this started.

8. AOB

SB asked about our DNA rate since returning to normal ways of working since the pandemic. JRK advised that this was higher than pre-pandemic days particularly our nurse’s smear appointments. Discussion took place around the best way to highlight the importance of these health checks and again, this will be promoted on our social media page and website. For all other DNA’s, we have a policy in place which is shared with patients who regularly miss their appointments and a message is added to their notes.

We thanked the PPG for their time and it was agreed another meeting will be held once the building work has been completed.

Date of next meeting: Tuesday 6th September 2022.