Aug. 21, 2023

Agenda

None set due to outgoing PM farewell.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Minutes

The Vine Medical Centre

Patient Participation Group

21st August 2023

Minutes

1.       Present

John Coope (Chair) Vanessa Young (Practice Manager) Pauline Morozgalska (sec)Michael Crow, Karen Etheridge, John Fitzpatrick, Carla Jackson, Erica Hirsch, Feliks Morozgalski.

 Apologies: Kate Fairbrother

 

2.       Welcome – John Coope

Dr. Will Barker introduced himself but was unable to stay for the meeting. John welcomed everyone and thanked them for coming and group were invited to introduce themselves. John explained that this was a special meeting to say farewell to Vanessa Young and thank her for all her hard work and support for the PPG since its inception.

Matters arising from minutes of last Zoom meeting 1st June 2023

JC went through a recap of the minutes and the need to review both the PPG terms of reference based on the National (NAPP) advice and also the practice Code of Conduct(Ground Rules) for patient participation in the PPG committee.

 

3.       Practice Update by VY various questions and answers included here

There are more changes at the practice as VY is leaving after being Practice Manager for 14 years. She confirmed that her successor will be Iona Sutherland who has had a variety of experiences with the NHS and is well qualified for the role of Practice Manager. Iona sent apologies for not being able to attend the meeting today.  JC said that he hoped to have a meeting with her during the following week.

VY confirmed that Dr.Sarah Murray will be returning to the Practice on a part time basis and Dr. Anita Jha will also remain a part time member of the team.

VY confirmed that the new Newsletter was available. Some discussion about this not being very visible to patients. It was suggested that perhaps someone else could help with layout and graphics as it is a very time-consuming exercise for the Practice Team. It was also suggested that an initial simple solution would be to use coloured paper.

Appointments

This remains a work in progress as the NHS want to work towards a fully digital system that is expected to be in place by the end of September. Evidently there will be a triage system that will require patients to complete and submit an on-line form requesting an appointment. The paperwork is quite lengthy and could take about 10 minutes. Evidently, the reception staff will be able to help anyone who has difficulties with the new system.  It seemed that some of the surgery team have reservations about how well it will actually work. KE also mentioned that the libraries are providing quite a lot of digital support for users and maybe this could be signposted by the surgery to patients who might struggle with digital technology. KE will make further enquiries at library and report back.

There was considerable discussion about this and generally it was agreed that the new system could be very difficult for patients who are not very computer literate and a particular difficulty/challenge to many elderly people.

It was mentioned that the NHS website for the surgery still stated that the surgery was open for booking appointments from 8.30a.m. This is incorrect as it is 8.00 a.m. VY will ensure this is changed.

VY said that much information about the surgery is on the Facebook page.

             The formal meeting was completed and there was a relaxed time afterwards when we were able to thank Vanessa for  her hard work over the years and wish her well in the future

Date of next meeting:

JC will arrange with Iona Sutherland