PPG Minutes June 2024

Quote / Testimonial:
Where: Oaklands Surgery, Stade Street, Hythe, Kent
When: Monday 10th June 2024 at 1pm

Attendees:

  • [Chair] Caroline Armstrong CA
  • Penny Snow PS [Oaklands PA]
  • Barbara Moscrop BM
  • Claire Field CF
  • Gill Bond GB
  • Carol Honey CH

Apologies:

  • Claire Hewson CHe [Oaklands Practice Manager]
  • Louise Thorgrimson LT
  • Paul Hope PH
  • Yvonne Savage YS
The following action updates were noted:

1. Downstairs toilet repair – CA confirmed this had now been repaired and was fully operational, however the floor appeared dirty and unhygienic and required deep cleaning. PS agreed to discuss with the cleaning company.

2. Noticeboards –GB noted work on the noticeboard display had not commenced. PS confirmed the administrator responsible had been absent due to sickness and requested the action be carried forward.

3. CA noted administrative coding outstanding appeared to have dropped from 20k to 14k. PS confirmed this was continuing to travel in the right direction.

4. CA noted the website change around deleting mention of a PPG coffee morning to new patients when registering at the surgery had still not been deleted. It was agreed PS would action removal.

Minutes

Surgery Update and Introduction to New Staff members

PS gave the following summary:

The recent Covid Campaign was successfully completed with 800/900 patients seen per day over the 4-dayperiod. The Campaign is due to finish at the end of June.

The Winter Covid Campaign criteria around eligibility will be changing and guidance on this from the NHS is currently pending. Guidance around changes to the next Flu Campaign was also still pending.

The following staff changes were noted:

Two care navigators had resigned due to the job not meeting their expectations and dislike for the role. A further 2 care navigators have been recruited with strong customer service experience. One nurse practitioner had left, and interviews were currently underway to find her replacement.

The finance manager was also leaving, and consideration was being given before advertising the position as to whether a replacement was required or whether elements of the role could be picked up by other members of the team. It was noted however that the payroll was already outsourced to an external company and therefore was duly covered.

A new GP assistant is due to start in July who will concentrate on clinical elements such asphlebotomytogether with administration tasks. A care navigator workshop is due to be held with staff members to analyse the role, review training etc. to aid staff retention as turnover was particularly high in this area.

The Practice Partners had approved advertising spend to feature surgery services in the Sandgate & Hythe Booklet.

CA noted that the PCN were currently considering advertising their services as a whole across all local surgeries. It was agreed that CA would speak to Kim at the PCN about the PCN producing an advert for inclusion in the booklet.

PS noted for information only the PCN were holding a presentation at the Leas Cliff Hall for all surgery employees to attend on the 20th June.

PS noted for information only the PCN were currently monitoring remotely a home clinical pilot and an update would be provided in due course.

Best Person to See Leaflet

CA reported she had handed out approximately 200 leaflets at the recent Saturday morning Covid Clinic and it had been well received by patients. Unfortunately, even though instructions had been given to hand out leaflets, subsequently, when 2 members of the PPG attended the clinic on Saturday afternoon and Sunday a leaflet wasn’t handed to them. This was very disappointing.

CA noted that PPG members could be available to cover clinics in the future if required.

PS to feedback comments to Practice Manager with a view to managing more successfully at the future clinics.

Visit to the Parkinson’s Centre, Canterbury.

CA gave an update on her recent visit with BM to the Parkinson’s Centre for Integrated Therapy (PCIT) noting the excellence of the Centre and handed out a leaflet to the PPG members detailing the services provided.

BM commented research indicates 1 in 37 people now suffer from Parkinson’s and this was increasing, hence it was important to make patients aware of this facility.

PS commented it might be possible to mirror the contents of the leaflet within a text to send out to surgery patients for awareness. A filter could be applied to the surgery database to extract those patients affected.

BM noted it would be interesting to know the number of texts sent. PS also suggested passing the leaflet to Age UK.

CA to give PS the PCIT email address so she can contact them to see if they could send an email copy of the leaflet in order that the task could be facilitated.

AOB

GB commented on the robotic health machine in reception and raised concerns about the privacy for patients when using, suggesting some type of screening be placed around this and information about usage be more visual.

PS confirmed that no personal questions were asked, only instructions were given. The machine was purely a time saver for staff as it collated standard medical information such as blood pressure, height, and weight which was automatically transferred to patients records.

Date of the next meeting

The next meeting will be held on Monday 9th September at 1pm.