Harley House Surgery Patient Participation Group
Monday 5th December
Present: Mr Bryan Leaker, Mrs Jane Durham, Dr John Higgie, Janet Hewlett, Polly Banks, Mr Barry Watson, Mr James Taylor, Mrs Jenny High, Mrs Rosemary Toeman, Mrs Wendy Atkins, Mrs Amy Fielding, Mrs Siobhan Hutchings
Apologies: Mrs Rosemary Douglas, Mr Trevor John, Brian Worrell from the Slinky Bus Service.
Minutes from the previous meeting were discussed and agreed. One typing error was found and has been corrected.
Confidentiality: Confidentiality in the waiting room is an issue the group agreed was something they would like to look at, a quote has been received from a local carpenter to put up a stud wall and a quote to replace the existing window fixed window with an opening one. Sadly funding was sought from the PCT for this but was declined and so the meeting discussed holding a raffle to help with the costs. Bryan has kindly offered to get some prizes. The draw could be advertised in the reception area, tickets would be 50p each and PPG members would be given some each to sell. The draw could be held on the open day. As this would involve receipt of money it was agreed that the group would need to open a bank account, with a cheque requiring two signatories. Proposed signatories Bryan as Chair, Janet representing the practice and Barry Watson representing the group. Although we would like to wait until we have the results of the patient survey to see if patients agreed this is an issue before commencing any work. Dr Higgie said it would be more wheelchair friendly if we could also lower the height of the reception desk, which is chest height for staff security, this would however involve major building work. Jenny asked how people in wheelchairs managed with the height of the desk? Dr Higgie replied that he was not aware of anyone finding difficulties, however it was agreed good patient care would be for a receptionist to go out into the waiting room to speak to the patient.
Open Day: A date of Saturday 3rd March was initially agreed, but later in the meeting it was decided that this didn’t leave us much time and another date will be agreed at the next meeting. A subcommittee of Janet, Lorraine, Polly and Siobhan will work on planning the day as it was agreed the more interactive we could make it the better. Proposed services on the day include; BP testing, BMI measuring, Blood Glucose testing and possibly Cholesterol testing. The group also suggested, general health promotion, smoking cessation, weight loss advice and breast cancer awareness would be good subjects to look at. Groups that we could approach to attend are, 1610 (our local leisure centre), District Nurse Team, our practice based McTimoney-Corley Spinal Therapist Giles Spearing, our Health Visiting Team and our Dietician. Jenny suggested a large map displayed in the practice with the catchment area high-lighted. Bryan said he would hope we could attract 100-150 visitors.
Signage: The MineheadMiddle School has agreed to run a competition to design a new logo for the surgery; the closing date is the end of January. The judges will be Middle School Head of Art, Bryan, Janet and a GP (Dr Nelson has since agreed). Bryan will arrange for the Freepress to do an article.
Practice Survey: Bryan and Jane have put together a survey, which was discussed by the group and finalised. Wendy and Amy suggested it would be easier if we could include some easy read symbols for patients with poor vision or learning difficulties. Barry, Rosemary and Jenny have kindly agreed to carry out the survey and help patients to complete the questionnaires. The practice will provide name badges to identify them while they are carrying out the survey. We hope to arrange this in early January.
Anticoagulation: Bryan reminded the meeting about the rumoured withdrawal by Primary Care Trust of our level 4 Anticoagulation Service. Irnham Lodge Surgery do not offer this service and therefore the Primary Care Trust are looking to provide the service for their patients else where. Harley House are not keen to offer this service to patients of another surgery, but if it is the only way we can keep this first rate service for our patients here in the Surgery then we are prepared to look at taking on the service for these additional 90-100 patients and who knows we main gain some new registrations. We believe what makes our service so comprehensive is the fact that patients can be tested, any queries or problems can be addressed within minutes as we have access to the patient’s medical records and the up to date dose of Warfarin advised. Despite contacting the Primary Care Trust on several occasions regarding the level 4 service we have not had a reply. The Trust is obliged to give us 6 months notice before they can withdraw the service. Bryan is going to write to Judith Brown regarding this and other on-going issues he has with regards to local services.
Training: Dr Higgie was pleased to inform the meeting we are as they may be aware a training practice for GP’s and have been awarded the highest training award possible for a training practice to achieve, this is thanks to the work of the whole team, but especially Dr Neville. Bryan will arrange to have a story about this in the local paper.
New residents: Bryan is keen to promote the practice and has had the good idea of our leaflet being given out to people looking to move to West Somerset via the Estate Agents when they send out information to prospective buyers. Our existing leaflet would need to be reviewed with this in mind and possibly have it professionally printed.
Mugshots: Janet has arranged for a photography student to visit the practice to take staff photos and would like to have as many as possible of the group members included in a photo for the website and to advertise the group within the practice. This will be around Christmas time and she will phone everyone when she has a date & time.
Next Meeting: MONDAY 16TH JANUARY 2PM
Harley House Surgery Patient Participation Group Meeting
Friday 7th October 2011
Minutes
Present: Bryan Leaker, Jane Durham, Barry Watson, Jenny High, Rosemary Toeman, Rosemary Douglas, Wendy Atkins, Amy Fielding, Trevor John, Alan Nelson and Janet Hewlett.
The minutes from our last meeting on 28th July were discussed and signed off.
The members of the group who had been unable to attend the last meeting agreed that they were happy for the group to have their contact details, full address list attached.
Following on from our previous meeting, Bryan and Janet updated the group with the objectives that were proposed:
Confidentiality, The Group has looked at the waiting room and has suggested a stud wall could be put up near the children’s area at the end of the reception desk. The children’s area could be moved to the corner where the notice board is. Bryan will arrange a quote for a stud wall. The area vacated by the children would then enable patients to talk to a receptionist much more discretely.
Patient Experience, Janet explained that any patients who have been registered with the surgery for more than a couple of years may no longer be up to date with many aspects of Harley House Surgery and the services available from the NHS. One of the ideas raised would be an open day, Janet has spoken with the GP’s and in principle they are happy to support this, the idea would be to have a receptionist, a nurse and a GP available to show people around in small groups and answer questions. New patients are given a practice leaflet with the most up to date information when they register at Harley House. One of the ways of keeping everyone informed of how systems work within the practice would be a selection of leaflets, however we are very aware of the large amount of leaflets already in the waiting area and more could well be lost. Having a list of commonly requested leaflets, which patients could request from reception, was discussed. We will try and work out which are the most popular subjects that patients request information about. Patients who are able to use the internet can access a huge amount of information at http://www.patient.co.uk/. Amy and Wendy asked if ‘Easy Read’ leaflets are available, we don’t have them at the moment, but can look into this.
Signage, Bryan has kindly offered to speak to the Head of Minehead Middle School and arrange a competition to design a new Harley House logo with a prize for the winner and possibly some publicity in the Freepress. The new logo would give us more of a smarter identity.
Practice Survey: The PCT (Primary Care Trust) have requested that the PPG carries out a survey, the results of this survey, the results and comments from the PPG need to be collated and returned to the PCT by the end of March. Bryan and Jane will meet to put together some questions, a couple of the group members have kindly offered to sit in the waiting room and conduct the survey, we will finalise this at the next meeting.
Practice Report:
Janet reported that before the PPG was put together we were in negotiation with the PCT regarding the very poor up take of our Saturday morning surgeries, which have averaged only 1 patient per surgery this year. Our later evening surgeries are far more popular. We now offer two GP surgeries on a Tuesday evening instead of a Saturday morning and this week both surgeries were full. The only down side to this is the GP’s start surgery later in the day and therefore are not available for patients who are able to come in, in the morning. The appointments are all pre-bookable only, although if a patient was to present at the surgery they would be seen if there was an appointment. The meeting agreed this was a good service and we should have a poster advertising the surgeries.
The Flu Clinics are soon they are Wednesday 26th October 9am – 12noon
Thursday 27th Octover 1:30pm – 4:30pm
Tuesday 8th November 9am – 12noon.
The PPG contact email has been set up and is on the website it is ppg@harleyhouse.nhs.uk .
INR Clinic, this is for people who have a heart condition and are taking Warfarin to attend to have a finger prick blood test to determine the amount of Warfarin they need to take, we have 138 patients on this therapy. Dr Nelson explained to the group, 7 months ago we took on this service from Minehead Hospital, it has proved very popular with our patients as they find the surgery location much easier to access and our nurses offer a great service telephoning any patients if they forget these vital appointments, Bryan agreed it is a great service as he has experience of the service both as a patient and as a provider through his company in the south east. Irnham Lodge Surgery do not offer this service and as the hospital are now unable to make the service viable for their patients only, the PCT want to decommission this service from Harley House. Only 4 practices in Somerset don’t offer an INR Clinic. The GP’s at Harley House feel very strongly about loosing this service and are keen to gain support from the PPG when responding to the PCT. The meeting unanimously agreed to support keeping the INR Clinic at Harley House. The Surgery has a meeting regarding this matter on Monday 10th October to decide how to move forward and will keep Bryan informed and the group if necessary if we need further support and input.
Rosemary T made the meeting aware of Atwest who offer considerably reduced cost transport for people in West Somerset, taking them to hospital appointments and bringing them to the surgery is something they can do, especially from outlying areas; this service needs to be booked in advanced. The practice catchment runs from Porlock to Washford and up to Wheddon Cross. Bryan asked if they would be able to attend the next group meeting to advise us of their services
The next meeting has been arranged for Monday 5th December at 2pm. Bryan and Jane will bring a draft patient survey to the meeting for discussion
Harley House Surgery
Patient Participation Group Meeting
Thursday 28th July 2011
Minutes
Present: Dr Alan Nelson, practice manager Janet Hewlett, Senior receptionist Polly Banks, Mr Bryan Leaker, Mrs Melanie Reaney, Mrs Jane Durham, Mr James Taylor, Mrs Rosemary Toeman, Mrs Rosemary Douglas and Mrs Jenny High.
Following introductions, Dr Alan Nelson opened the meeting, thanking everyone for attending and Mr Bryan Leaker for his work in putting the group together. He explained how Harley House Surgery hoped to work with the group in order to give us a greater idea of how the practice is perceived and how we may work with the group to get feedback and ideas as to how we can improve our patient experience within the practice.
He then proposed Bryan as Chairman, which was agreed unanimously by the meeting, Mrs Jane Durham was elected as Deputy Chairman and Janet will be interim secretary.
Bryan introduced himself, among his many roles he has recently stepped down as Operations Director from his company About Health to a non executive role and to run his guest house in the town. Many people will know Bryan as the former Centre Director of Butlins Somerwest World.
Contacts: An email address PPG@harleyhouse.nhs.uk will be set up and advertised on the surgery website and in the waiting room. Patient’s can contact the PPG via the email or by contacting the surgery.
Bryan asked everyone for their ideas of how they see the group objectives.
Objectives: Visibility/Transparency/How the practice works
Signage
Website
Patient Access Rate
PR
Influences
Patient Experiences
Service Specification
Confidentiality
Rogues for the Waiting Room
Bryan will circulate this list to the group and ask each member to tick their priority 5 objectives in no necessary order and the group can then work of the 5 most popular.
Harley House Surgery PPG Group Members:
Chairman: Mr Bryan Leaker
Deputy Chair: Mrs Jane Durham
Members:
Mrs Jenny High
Mrs Rosemary Douglas
Mrs Rosemary Toeman
Mrs Melanie Reaney
Mrs Siobhan Hutchings
Mrs Wendy Atkins
Mrs Amy Fielding
Mr James Taylor
Mr Trevor John
Mr Barry Watson