Author: globaladmin

Attended by: Dr Sahoo, Christine Cain, Louise Armstrong, EH, RD, PJ, LH.

Introductions: Dr Sahoo introduced Louise as new Deputy Practice Manager and explained that Christine would be retiring at the end of the year after 36 years working for the practice. We welcomed new PPG member RD.

Updates from last meeting: EH asked if anything had happened regarding a board being displayed in waiting room to show how the practice is responding to patient suggestions from the group.  Christine explained that this had not yet been done but would look into it. Dr Sahoo pointed out that space is sparce in waiting rooms due to amount of posters etc. Louse suggested that a better idea may be to put this on our Facebook page following the PPG meetings. EH mentioned coffee mornings and volunteered to help with these.  Dr Sahoo pointed out that there is a coffee morning either monthly or fortnightly at Blackhall and that these had been very well attended and that there were talks to extend these to the Peterlee area.

Staffing updates: Dr Sahoo explained there have been some staffing changes recently although staffing is mainly stable. There will be changes due to Christine’s retirement and Louise taking over as Deputy Manager.  The practice now has 3 GP trainers and also 3 GP registrars (GPs in training).  He explained that by being a training practice it brings new GPs into the area and by training within the practice it is hoped that they may wish to stay working in the area as a GP as Easington area has difficulty recruiting GPs due to most living cities and not wishing to travel.  He explained there had been some staff shortage recently due to sickness and covid but that this seemed to be settling and hopefully that will take the pressure off as we move into winter pressures.

Covid/Flu vaccinations:  It was discussed that the practice has been delivering covid and flu vaccinations and that we have been running Saturday clinics as it is impossible to do them all in practice hours without effecting patient care. PJ mentioned that he had been for his vaccines and congratulated the practice on running a very smooth vaccination programme and he felt it ran like clockwork due to the staff all pulling together to make it work.  Dr Sahoo asked that this praise was conveyed to the nursing team and staff involved.

PCN Updates:  Dr Sahoo explained what the Primary Care Network (PCN) is and what it is made up of.  He explained that we work together with William Brown Centre and Blackhall and Peterlee Practice as part of the network and provide patients with access to social link workers, first contact physiotherapists, first contact mental health workers. It was explained that the PCN patient group meeting was taking place after this meeting and patients were free to stay behind and attend as representatives are needed from all 3 practices.

Any other business:  Christine asked the patients if they preferred to be contacted by letter or text regarding the next meeting.  EH explained that text is probably better as can respond to say if attending.  Christine recognised that some patients did not have mobile numbers and would send them letters.

RD spoke regarding the new developments in patients accessing records and that he felt that it makes patient care two tiered as patients who could not access internet would not have the same access than those who do.  Dr Sahoo pointed out that this is a government level decision and that he agreed it had a lot of problems, but it was something that we will need to work with and deal with issues as they arise.

Dr Sahoo spoke about how the practice had removed patients due to their behaviour towards staff and that we are operating a zero tolerance of these behaviours.  He said that this seems to have calmed down and he is finding we are seeing less of this behaviour recently.  PJ pointed out that the reception staff should be congratulated on their work as they always try their very best to accommodate patients and EH agreed that she finds the reception team very calming and professional in comparison to other practice teams she has had contact with.  Louise to pass this onto reception staff.

Staff well-being is a big priority at present and a team building afternoon was arranged where staff went bowling and for a meal. This was a big success and was enjoyed by all staff and hopefully we can arrange similar events in future.

Actions:

Louise to pass on congratulations to staff for providing a well run covid/flu programme and to admin staff for always trying their best to accommodate patients and remain calm and professional under what can be a very pressurised environment. Louise/Christine to update Facebook page with any suggestions that have been taken from the PPG and to show what action has been taken.

Next meeting TBC:

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.

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.

Attendees:
Dr Brown | Christine Cain | GH | CC | MS | AS

Dr Brown discussed the changes within the Practice. Dr Burton, who was on rotation as a GP registrar has now left, and we have a new year 3 trainee called Dr Uwa. We have a new Physio called Paul Miller who works for the PCN and will be with us on a Monday and Tuesday each week. Thea Debonnaire is a new career nurse and Jade Hizzett is our new Young Persons Social Prescribing Link Worker.

If annual covid vaccinations are brought in it is likely we will continue to perform these in house like we do with the flu vaccinations, we had quite a poor uptake for flu and covid this year so we will try to improve on this. The pandemic is still ongoing, but we are operating in a Pre-pandemic manner. Patients are not required to wear a mask when attending the surgery unless they are coming into the surgery with coughs and colds.

Dr Brown mentioned a recent study by the Daily Mail on how well GP practices are performing in regard to face-to-face appointments and our practice had performed the highest of local practices at 83.48%, compared to a practice in London who scored 14%. We do still offer some telephone appointments as some patients prefer these.

Challenges we had such as increase in patient demand, staff shortages and illness are now improving. There are more on the day appointments available and covid infections rates are less frequent. We do however have issues with premises as we have more staff and not enough rooms. As Dr Brown is now a partner and Karen Neary is the Practice Manager, we are expecting a visit from CQC (Care Quality Commission) because of the changes.

The group asked why the wearing of masks had been dropped and it was explained that it was a government decision but that it was also patient preference.

The role of the physio is to be treated like a GP appointment he will examine, diagnose, and refer to physio at Peterlee.

MS, AS and CC all go private for their physio and wondered why physio isn’t offered in house. GH mentioned the increase in mental health problems, Dr Brown explained that there was an increase in things like personality disorders, ADHD and autism and there was up to a two year wait to be seen.

CC mentioned Andy’s man Club which is held every Monday at Horden Welfare Centre for men who need to talk about their problems, MS mentioned a group that meets at Blackhall and Dr Brown explained the role of the mental health service called Talking Changes.

The Group agreed that the Practice offer a very good service and the only complaint they had was the privacy issue at Peterlee reception and being able to hear conversations from the Nurses room in the waiting room although playing a radio in the waiting room has been introduced to try and remedy this problem.

All of the group at the meeting signed an attendance sheet and were happy for patient identifiable details to be added to the website in the meeting minutes.

Date of next meeting to be arranged.