LOCAL PATIENT PARTICIPATION GROUP

THE EVERGREEN SURGERY

MINUTES OF PRACTICE PARTICIPATION

MEETING

21ST JULY 2015

Attending the meeting.-                                                                                                                                Apologies for Absence -

 

Staff ‑

Dr Sarah Amini

Louise Thomson Practice Manager

Diane Turner Asst Practice Manager

Elmarie Hahn Practice Nurse

 

Patients.‑

Anne Bertrand

Margaret Adams

David Woolfe

Susan Beverley

Laurence Didino

Frederick Bowers

Frank Lansdell

Mary Wright

Iris Vandenberghe

Anne Kontofrios

Maxine Whitton

Jean Bleach

                                                                                                                                                                      Dr Jenifer Sargent

                                                                                                                                                                      Alex Wilkinson

SUMMARY OF TOPICS DISCUSSED

SURGERY STAFF CHANGES

 

Dr Mahmood Jhetam is leaving the surgery at the end of July after 10 years. He will be missed by patients and staff.

 

Dr Das will be joining us to replace Dr Jhetam in August.

 

Dr Worsnop is currently on Maternity Leave, she has just had her 2nd  baby. We send her congratulation.

 

Dr Gajjar will be filling in for Dr Worsnop until she returns in the new year.

 

We have two new Registrars joining us in August. Dr Luke Harris and Dr Sonia Tsukagoshi

 

We have a Turkish Doctor coming to observe for two weeks in November

 

CHANGES TO SURGERY HOURS

 

Friday mornings Dr Ryan and Dr Amini start surgery at 8 30am

 

Our Nurse Elmarie starts surgery on Thursday mornings at 8.00am.

 

One Wednesday Morning a month we are closed for Staff Training

 

TERMINATION OF SATURDAY MORNING OPENING

 

The Surgery will be changing hours as from the end of July We will no longer be opening on a Saturday.

To cover the weekends and evening there is a new service You will be able to telephone between 2pm

to 9pm Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm Weekends and Bank Holidays. The number is 020 3770 1888. You will be given an appointment time at one of

the three hubs open at the moment, either Fullwell Cross Medical Centre, Newbury Group Practice or Southdene Surgery, South Woodford.

Outside of these times please still ring 111.

 

If you go to A & E they are likely to turn you away

 

If you have ever used the 111 service they will have you details but otherwise they will not have your records.

 

PRACTICE BOUNDARY AND  LIST SIZE,

We are the 2nd largest practice in the CCG. Dr Amini, asked should we extend our boundaries, most patients thought this was not a good idea. Our list has to remain open,

 

CONSULTATION LENGTH

Dr Amini asked did the patients think 10mins was long enough for a consultation. It was thought that on the whole this was not long enough as quite often patients has more than one problem to discuss with a Doctor and they cannot do this in just 10 minutes and would like to be able to book a longer appointment. Dr Amini explained that only one problems can be dealt with properly in 10 minutes as the Doctor does not want to rush and overlook anything. We will pilot for those over 75 the option to book a 15- 20 minute appointment, which should help a lot of our older patients

 

ACCESSING APPOINTMENTS ONLINE

Patients felt there was still a problem booking appointments.

To address this issue we now have an online booking system. To access this service you need to go to patientaccess.co.uk and follow the instructions. Patients are also able to get repeat prescriptions on line We did have notices up informing patients about this system but

they seem to have vanished. We will ensure that these are replaced.

 

NHS HEALTH CHECKS

Health Checks are now available for patients between the ages of 40-75 who do not have any major health problems. Please ask for details at reception.

 

SHINGLES VACCINATION

Shingles vaccines are only available for patient age 70 or 79 years. There has been a shortage of this vaccine and it is quite costly This may explain why only these age groups are chosen at the moment by the NHS funding department.

Invitations were sent out by an outside source to all those entitled to this vaccine in September and October last year, but is seems not all patients were informed. We will look into sending out letters ourselves this year.

 

PRACTICE NEWSLETTER

We were asked if we could do a newsletter every 6 months to update patients regarding the surgery, but we explained that this would not be possible as we unfortunately do not have the time and resources to do this

 

PRACTICE LEAFLET

It was pointed out to us that it is difficult to access information regarding the surgery hours and Doctors etc without a computer. We did have a Practice Leaflet but unfortunately, this is no longer available to us as the funding for this is not available. We will, in the near future

issue another Practice Leaflet which will be given to all new patients who join the Surgery.

 

REPEAT PRESCRIPTION

We were asked why we only prescribe for two months at a time. This is a cost issue and Waste issue The CCG guidelines advise two month supply for any repeat medication as they may be stopped or changed. The Chemist is unable to re-use tablets which are no longer needed and he will destroy them if they are given back to him. Three months is sometime allowed if you are travelling abroad for sometime.

 

PRACTICE INFORMATION POSTERS

We have agreed that our posters in the waiting room need to be sorted out and important ones need to be shown prominently. Our website www.26highstreet.co.uk  will be updated with the new changes to times and staff. These details are also to be found on the NHS Choices

website.