PPG Minutes April 2024

Quote / Testimonial:
Where: Oaklands Surgery, Stade Street, Hythe, Kent
When: Monday 8th April 2024 at 1pm

Attendees:

  • Present: [Chair] Caroline Armstrong CA 
  • Claire Hewson CHe [Oaklands Practice Manager] 
  • Barbara Moscrop BM 
  • Claire Field CF 
  • Gill Bond GB 
  • Yvonne Savage YS  

Apologies:

  • Louise Thorgrimson LT 
  • Paul Hope PH 
  • Carol Honey CH 
  • Penny Snow PS [Oaklands PA]  

Minutes 

The following action updates were noted:  

Toilet repair – CA reopened this action as the toilets are in bad repair. GB pointed out that they have been like it for several months.

CHe confirmed that estimates are being sought to get the toilets and the staff room renovated. Carry forward  Noticeboards – CHe noted work around improving the current display was still ongoing and will now be reviewed by Jo Weimer (senior care navigator) as Cathy has retired. CHe is looking in to the use of an interactive pod for the surgery which will allow patients access to information specific to themselves.  Carry forward.  

CA noted the website change around deleting reference to a PPG coffee morning had still not been deleted.  CA further pointed out that a lot of Oaklands website was out of date and urgently needs review. CHe agreed but there is a lack of resource and time to complete this. CA suggested that help could be sought from the PCN and she will raise this at the next PCN PPG. Carry forward.  

CH to obtain contact name to find out further details on the Age UK Health Service. Carry forward.     

Surgery Update and Introduction to New Staff Members

CHe gave the following update:  

Jo Weimer has been appointed the full time Senior Care Navigator but the turnover of other care navigators is high. This is thought to be mainly from the abuse that they are subjected to on the phones and the front desk.  It is also thought that patients are receiving misinformation about who they can see. Communication needs to be improved to advise patients why they possibly can’t see a doctor. BM & GB suggested that the leaflet ‘The best person to see’ which has been designed could be used and distributed at the covid booster clinics. CHe will email PCN to check if this leaflet  is due to be signed off and CA to check its progress at the next PCN PPG meeting on 18th April.  

Patient numbers are now over 12k and it is difficult manage with high staff turnover and burnout. The end of the Financial year has also brought extra workload.  Penny was due to take a lot of the workload from CHe so she could concentrate on completing the work required prior to the next CQC visit  but this hasn’t been possible due to issues with secretaries.   

Doctor James Whiteway has joined the practice for 3 months. He is  a new FY2 (Foundation Year 2) doctor. CHe is pushing to have Dr Harvey accredited as an Educational Supervisor so she can sign off ST3 (specialist 3rd Year ) students. This will give the practice more appointment capacity.  

CHE advised that the surgery has achieved 95% QOF (Quality and outcome framework)  The backlog of scan results have now been cleared by Beth (the GP assistant) and these are dealt with on a daily basis.  Dr Swann and Dr Harvey have also worked on the outstanding clinic letters requiring coding and have bought the outstanding figure down from 20k to 14k.   

The Spring Covid vaccine booster programme is due to start w/c 15th April with Care homes and housebound patients visited. 2000 text invites have been sent out for the over 75s and 521 appointments in one day.  The first clinic will be held on Saturday 27th April.  The immune suppressed will also be included and there are some 7000 possible patients across the PCN. Appointments can be made through the app or via 119.      

CQC visit – no date has been received for when the next visit will be.  CHe and Dr Bala recently attended an ICB Innovation & Communication training meeting in London which was about the new way CQC visited are undertaken. 

They have since been unable to catch up to move forward the information gained.   A 2 week IT engineer upgrade has taken place to migrate the server onto a cloud based platform.   

Communication

Lack of communication remains the biggest issue for Managers and staff and is a huge problem.  If patients received more information and were better informed of services, the system would run smoother and possibly cut down the current abuse. 

CA pointed out that the last ‘Sandgate and Hythe Handbook’ had 2 pages of information from NHS England about the NHS app and the MMR vaccinations. This proves that information can be passed onto patients in a publication of this sort which goes through every door in the area.

CHe will look into this, advise the Partners and will follow up at the next meeting.  

Role of the PCN and Signposting

BM reported that a recent request for an Occupational Therapist had been very difficult. She ended approaching the PCN directly who helped but this information is not generally known to patients. BM wanted to thank the PCN and thought this pathway should be communicated.  CA will raise this at the next PCN PPG meeting  

BM reported that a recent request for an Occupational Therapist had been very difficult. She ended approaching the PCN directly who helped but this information is not generally known to patients. BM wanted to thank the PCN and thought this pathway should be communicated.  CA will raise this at the next PCN PPG meeting  

Visit to the Parkinson’s Centre

CA & BM have arranged to visit the new Parkinson’s centre which has recently moved to the Canterbury University. This visit will be on Wednesday 24th April and CA & BM will feed back to the PPG at the next meeting.  

AOB

GB advised that she has been asked to take part in a trial of home monitoring. CHe wasn’t aware of this even though it appears to be connected to the surgery.  CHe will investigate and update us at the next meeting.  

Date of the next meeting

The next meeting will be held on Monday 10th June at 1pm.