Author: globaladmin

(Effective from 1 March 2025)

Sometimes the care of a patient is shared between two doctors, usually a GP and a specialist, and there is a formalised written ‘shared care agreement’ setting out the position of each, to which both parties have willingly agreed. Where these arrangements are in place, GP providers can arrange the prescriptions and appropriate investigations, and the results are fully dealt with by clinicians with the necessary competence under the shared care arrangement. There is NHS guidance available about this.

Shared Care with private providers is not recommended due to the general NHS constitution principle of keeping as clear a separation as possible between private and NHS care. Shared Care is currently set up as an NHS service, and entering into a shared care arrangement may have implications around governance and quality assurance as well as promoting health inequalities. A private patient seeking access to shared care should therefore have their care completely transferred to the NHS. Shared care may be appropriate where private providers are providing commissioned NHS services and where appropriate shared care arrangements are in place.

All shared care arrangements are voluntary, so even where agreements are in place, practices can decline shared care requests on clinical and capacity grounds. The responsibility for the patient’s care and ongoing prescribing then remains the responsibility of the private provider.

If you are under the care of a private specialist, we will not be able to enter into a shared care agreement. You can ask us to refer you to an in-person NHS mental health team, but while waiting to see them, you will need to obtain your treatment from your private specialist directly.

The above statement also applies to Third party providers working under right to choose.

We will not carry out tests that private providers want you to have, any tests that private providers need to be done must be completed by them. The Right to Choose providers are also commissioned to do things like physical checks and blood tests and therefore this is also something that they should provide. If they are an online/remote provider, you will need to discuss this fully with them on how to proceed.

If you have started treatment with a private provider, you will either need to:

• • approach the Practice to request a referral to an NHS specialist
  • or continue to receive your treatment directly from your private provider indefinitely

Please note that there may be a significant delay in having your diagnosis reviewed by the NHS team and them agreeing to participate in a shared care agreement. During this time, you will need to continue to receive your treatment directly from your private provider. The Practice is not able or obliged in any way to provide a “bridging” prescription.

Well done to our wonderful team on raising £84 for Save the Children on Christmas Jumper Day 2024

Attendees: Dr Brown, Louise Armstrong, Debbie Bailey (South Durham Health Federation), CC (Age UK) John Kelly, (Social Prescribing Link Worker) GP, MN, MS, AS.

Introductions: Dr Brown introduced himself and explained that today’s meeting would follow a different format as we welcome guest speakers Charles Chapman and John Kelly.

Updates since last meeting:

Dr Brown told members that there has been little change since the last meeting. The main change has been that long standing receptionist Linda had now retired and that we now have 2 new receptionists in post.

John Kelly (Social Prescribing Link Team Lead.)

Dr Brown introduced John to the group. John explained the role of social prescribing link worker and how this service works hand in hand with the 3 GP surgeries in our PCN. John explained that the team can support patients with social issues such as housing, social isolation, debt management etc. Patients can be referred by their GP but can also be referred by other agencies or staff members at the practice. The team then help the patient to identify their needs and signpost them into the correct direction for support. MN asked John how patients know about this service and another PPG member stated this was something they did not know existed. Dr Brown explained that if a patient comes to him and mentions a social problem then he can direct them to John. John explained that posters had been put in all surgery waiting rooms and advertised on social media. John acknowledged that there is a group of patients who do not use social media or come into the surgery that may not be aware of the service and that this was a problem. He explained that this is where CC and the team at AGE UK can help. John also told patients about coffee mornings that are run at Peterlee and Blackhall. John was asked if there were any plans to run one of these at Horden. He explained that Horden had a lot of these already in place but that it was an area that they would be looking at next, to either visit existing groups or set up a group.

AGE UK County Durham

CC introduced himself and explained his role at Age UK County Durham. He explained that one of the projects that Age UK are working in is the Digital Inclusion Programme. This is a service that helps people over the age of 50 with technology training. He explained that they can visit a person’s home and help them to access the internet and train them on safe ways to use this. They offer one to one training and can also visit community groups. It was pointed out that a lot of people will not know about the service and CC acknowledged this and has asked us if we can begin to hand out leaflets to this patient group and explain what they offer.

Actions:

Louise to ask receptionists to actively promote the digital inclusion programme by asking patients if they use the app and if they express that this is difficult for them to signpost to the team.

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.

Well done to our wonderful team who raised a brilliant £82 for Christmas Jumper Day 2023

Attendees:
Dr Gareth Brown | Christine Cain | LH | EO | EH | MS

Dr Brown started the meeting by discussing recent developments within the Practice. As we are a training Practice we have 3 GP Registrars with us at the moment, Dr Hashem being trained by Dr Brown, Dr Uwadia being trained by Dr Sahoo and Dr Uwa being trained by Dr Krishnan.

Dr Abu is now fully qualified and is going to continue working in the Practice. Jas Kaur the pre reg pharmacist is now a qualified pharmacist and will staying with us, Nabiha Ashraf is our new pre reg pharmacist.

Pearl Cusworth deals with adult mental health issues and Beccy Horwood deals with child mental health problems.

John Kelly is a Social Prescriber dealing with health and wellbeing in adults and Jade Hizzett is the social prescriber for children.

Paul Miller is our First Contact Physiotherapist who works between Horden, Blackhall and William Brown Centre

Covid vaccinations will be carried out at the Practice this year (Peterlee Site) and eligible patients will receive them in conjunction with their flu vaccinations these will start sometime in September.

Waiting lists for routine hospital appointments are at an all-time high but urgent 2 week wait appointments are still working well. There is an increase in patient demand and on-call work, patients are coming to their appointments with multiple problems and are taking up a lot more than the 10 minutes allocated, a double appointment can be requested, and this will help with the surgeries running late for other patients’ appointments. More clinical staff would increase the appointments, but unfortunately we haven’t enough rooms available. A change in the GP contract now offers appointments out of hours at the Hub in Peterlee Health Centre on a Saturday and Sunday. These appointments must be booked through the Surgery and is not a walk in.

CQC rated the Practice good the last time they visited last time but we are expecting another visit at any time although we have heard, this may be done over the telephone.

Dr Brown passed round the results of the recent GP surgery for all to see and we had very good results compared to some other local practices, although the percentage of patients getting to see their preferred GP was a bit lower but if something is urgent the patients should be prepared to see any GP if their preferred GP is full or on leave.

MS mentioned that Peterlee Surgery needs better disabled entry and also more disabled parking spaces. For the number of spaces, the small car park at Peterlee has, we believe it has the allocated number of disabled spaces. There is a ramp leading to the automatic doors at the Surgery. The building is owned by a consortium and managed by the landlord. We would be more than happy to pass on any suggestions for our patients.

EH suggested we have a board in the waiting room (You say we do board) to inform the patients when a suggestion has been acted upon. We feel this is a good idea and will look to implement something like this following the next meeting, where we will have more ideas.

EH suggested having a volunteer group set up to organise coffee mornings etc and also said she was involved in education sessions in the past where for example a tent was set up in the park where patients could call in and have their BP’s and bloods taken which can be useful in saving GP and Nurse appointments. EH suggested that some of the events we could ask patients for a donation towards equipment for future events such as BP machines.

Dr Brown suggested he could go to the local Andy’s man club to give a talk as he has been recommending the club to some of his patients and it would be good to know more about it.

Dr Brown suggested stop smoking/vaping sessions in secondary schools.

EH suggested informing patients of changes within the Practice by Facebook and in the waiting rooms and also suggested getting under 16’s more involved by perhaps organising meetings. EH also said she would be prepared to do some patient surveys in the surgery waiting room if that was something the practice required. We try to use our practice Facebook page to keep patients up to date with services and upcoming sessions, reminders for practice training dates etc, however, agree that changes could also be shared via Facebook. We also have TV screens at both sites and try to keep these up to date as well as our Facebook page.

Next meeting Tuesday 7 November 2023.

“Well done to our brilliant team and patients raising £250 for #macmillancoffeemorning on Friday 29 September. As well as lots of lovely goodies we had a raffle, donations and guess how many Colin the caterpillar faces 🥰”