Patient Participation Group Meeting Minutes – October 2024
Minutes of PPG meeting Tuesday 1st October 2024
Attendees: Dr Brown, Louise Armstrong and patients LH, Richard D, Margaret S, Michael N.
Apologies: AS
Introductions: Dr Brown introduced himself as one of the GP partners of Horden Group Practice. Introductions from all attendees.
Updates since last meeting:
Dr Brown told members that there has been little change in admin staffing since the last meeting. The only change is that we have employed a part time receptionist Hannah who will be working one day a week initially.
Dr Brown updated that there has been a change in registrars (trainee GPs) and that Dr Prabhuswamy and Dr Uwadia have moved on and we now have 2 new registrars, Dr Biondi and Dr Jide along with Dr Felix who will be with us until early next year.
Continuity of care
Dr Brown explained to members that the focus of this meeting would be surrounding the promotion of continuity of care for patients. He explained the new GP contract has recommended that GPs decrease the number of patients per session and the time they see a patient to 15 mins per patient contact. He explained that this is not feasible at present without impacting patient care and asked for ideas of how we can ensure patients continue to get a high level of care. Ideas were that GPs work longer days, but Dr Brown pointed out that this would go against what the BMA are recommending avoiding GP burnout. Dr Brown suggested that patients may have a named GP and discussed the idea of having teams of clinicians so that patients ideally get to see the same person more regularly. This was received as a good idea and patients felt that they preferred to see the same GP if they had an ongoing problem but didn’t mind seeing anyone if it was an acute problem. Dr Brown explained this would be a work in progress and welcomed PPG members to bring any ideas into the next meeting.
Vaccinations
Dr Brown explained that the vaccination programme for covid winter boosters and flu vaccinations was beginning this week and that we had booked a Saturday clinic to try and vaccinate as many patients as we could during this clinic so that it wouldn’t impact the weekly running of the Practice. He explained that uptake is continuing to decline around all vaccinations including childhood immunisations. Louise explained that the Practice have also been delivering the RSV vaccinations to eligible patients. For more information please speak to Reception.
CQC rating
The practice is currently rated as “GOOD,” by the care quality commission. The CQC are satisfied with the way the practice is running and performing and therefore decided to defer further inspection.
The next meeting date will be agreed shortly, and we will send this out via text to those with mobile numbers or letters for those who don’t. Please let us know if there is anyone who expresses interest in attending future groups.