Lakeside St Neots PPG Meeting Minutes - Monday 2nd September 2024

Apologies

• Helen Banting.
• Noted that Angela Gee has resigned from the PPG due to moving away

Matters Arising from 22 July

PPG Funds Update

• Sarah confirmed that the bank are in the process of setting up the new account for “Lakeside PPG”.  
• Book Sales continue at Dumbelton – income to date £25

Patient Surveys - Follow-up actions

Dr Chetty confirmed that the practice continues to review patient access to appointments.  More staff have been recruited including admin and trainee GP’s.  Demand for same day appointments always increases on Monday so the proportion of same day and advance appointments is adjusted.

Sue highlighted the problem of Anima not dealing with follow up appointments as the original case is closed once an appointment is made.  The patient then has to go through all the questions again for a new case on Anima.  Clare suggested that a button at the top of the screen to indicate “Follow up” would be useful.  Dr Chetty agreed to see if Anima can be customised.

Jonathan asked if it would be possible for routine/advance appointments to be released at 2.00pm instead of 8.00am.  This would reduce the 8am rush on the phones.  Sarah agreed to consider this.

Sue quoted an example of her case on Anima requesting a non urgent follow up appointment but at 9.35 she was allocated an appointment at Cedar House at 9.45 that morning which was impossible for her to get to.

The Patient Journey

A patient has many reasons to contact or be contacted by the surgery and the patient will talk/email with different members of staff over the year.

The PPG acknowledges that the patient experience when they see a practitioner is a good one.  The main problem is navigating the various ways to see a practitioner.

The PPG sees that there is a lot of opportunity to make patients' lives easier (and the practice) by better information being easily available.

Our overall goal is to work in collaboration with Lakeside to improve every Surgery contact point for every patient by April 2025.  

• To clarify contact point processes, offer suggestions for improvement and to support the Surgery communication of all healthcare provisions they offer, together with the methods by which every patient can access these services and all communications [both to and from] the Surgery.
• In order to ensure patient clarity, we envisage that one outcome may be be the creation of an on-line "Surgery map", which patients would access via the Surgery website, which would simply signpost each healthcare provision available and a route map containing easy to follow links, detailing how patients access each service.  Another outcome may be the rationalisation of how the Surgery communicates with each patient.

The work which is being done on the new Lakeside website is a good first step and the PPG will work with the practice to further improve this.

Clare and Sue gave some examples where communication with patients can be improved, particularly regarding appointments made for Anima cases.  Sarah agreed that she will set up a meeting for the PPG to meet with staff to explain the issues. 

PPG Facebook Group

Jonathan sent a draft initial post to Dr Chetty and he would like to make some amendments to the wording in order to take the emphasis away from the negative aspects of the last NHS patient survey.  Dr Chetty will email Jonathan with proposed amendments.

The objective of the Facebook group is to enable a wider range of patients to be involved in the PPG even if they cannot attend meetings due to work and family commitments.

Dr Chetty would also like the group to highlight areas of the service which are good.

Sarah pointed out that patients should be encouraged to give feedback from recent experience, not to quote issues from months or even years ago.

Sarah will feedback to the PPG her comments from the Practice perspective regarding posts on the platform.

Sarah confirmed that Practice staff have recently met with Ian Sollom MP and he had commented that constituents have been more positive about the service recently. 

Sarah confirmed that the PPG can advertise the Extended Access service which has evening and Saturday morning appointments available at Cedar House.  These are accessed by phoning the surgery.

NHS Statistics

Jonathan provided some graphs and tables which he has accessed on the NHS site and he has downloaded comparisons with other local surgeries and Lakeside Yaxley in order to compare performance.  He will send a link to the site to Dr Chetty.

The NHS statistics appear to show 15 GP’s at Lakeside. It wasn’t clear if this included the 6 GP registrars undergoing training.  Sarah confirmed this is incorrect but could be that if locums work during the month, their name has to be added to the list of GP’s even if they only do one day’s work.

Caroline is in the process of producing statistics which can be used by the PPG on the Facebook group.  Sarah will see her tomorrow to chase this.

AOB​​​​​​​  

Winter Vaccination Programme

Sarah confirmed that the Flu vaccinations will commence on 5 October for the over 65’s and 12 October for under 65’s.  If the Practice has supplies, it may be possible to include covid at the same time.

From this autumn, a new vaccine will be available for those between 75 and 79.  RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) is an infectious disease of the airways and lungs.

The PPG offered assistance during the vaccine clinics and Sarah confirmed that help with car parking would be useful.  The PPG also intends to  speak to patients at the clinics to spread the word about the PPG.

GP Industrial Action

•  Lakeside supports the industrial action but has taken the decision not to reduce the number of patient contacts.

Sharps Disposal

Peter highlighted problems following the surgery no longer accepting sharps boxes.  If Boots or Loves Farm Pharmacy have full boxes then they refuse to take any more.  HDC can arrange a collection but there is an £8 charge. It was suggested that the PPG contact HDC to check on the service 

Eye Screen Research Study

Dr Chetty explained about a new trial being run by Addenbrookes to screen patients for serious eye conditions.  Patients are pre-selected from anonymised data and they will receive £20 for taking part in the trial.  The study team would like to meet with the PPG.  Dr Chetty will contact them to set up a meeting.

New Lakeside Website

Sarah sent out this week a link to the proposed new website and asked for PPG comments.  She will check with Caroline what the target date is to send in comments by.

Meeting with Alison Morgan

The PPG have arranged to meet Alison (Personalised Care Team Leader) on 17 October to hear about the work of her team.

Next Meeting

• Next meeting date: Monday 18th November