Minutes taken from the last meeting on Thursday 15th December:
Minutes of the previous meetings and the AGM were approved.
Guest Speaker
This month’s guest speaker was one of the surgeries Specialist Mental Health Practitioners. They spoke about how the practice quickly recognised the benefits of an in-house mental health team both for patients and to GPs. The team is now four strong and seeing patients withal types of mental health issues: sleep problems, life events, stress, bereavement, anxiety, depression, personality disorders; a very broad spectrum. They continued with very enlightening and thought provoking insight into the work carried out by the Mental Health team, illustrated by a series of slides. This was followed by a Q&A answer session with several members commenting or raising questions. The practice explained the value of having a Mixed Team at RPC and that several other practices across Derbyshire were very keen to follow the model used by the practice.
Practice Update
The practice informed the PPG that they, especially its GPs, are extremely busy dealing with an abnormally high volume of Strep A cases, this was exasperated by the number of staff off sick. GPs are dealing with an excessive number of patients per day (60 to 70). This was putting an enormous strain on them and could not be sustained. Several GPs were working 10 hour plus shifts on a regular basis
One member asked if the problem of DNAs (Did Not Attend) could be addressed with their slots being re-allocated, also that the two missed appointment rule be applied. The practice is looking at how it could support those to attend. A study has been undertaken by the surgery around DNA (Did not attend) rates and advised that two reminders were now sent out to patients by text messages. The study got 608 responses over four months, messages were sent to all patients who didn’t attend their appointment to ask the reason why. The responses were that 218 (about 36%) of DNA’s said they forgot about their appointment, 21% were too ill to attend, 7% were unable to take time off work or conflicts with other appointments, 6% had transport problems with 1% having child care or carer provision. When asked, 20% said they had been unable to cancel their appointment. There is now a dedicated phone line to cancel appointments without having to wait for the admin team to answer plus there is provision on the apps. One member asked if reminders could be sent out two hours before appointments were due, the surgery advised that this wasn’t currently possible but may be with future system upgrades.
The surgery advised that they are using a common point scoring template called FeverPAIN score for diagnosing patients presenting with scarlet fever symptoms. This is being used by reception teams so that a best course of action could to be taken.
The issue regarding silent telephone calls i.e. when the practice couldn’t hear the person calling, experienced by some patients had been resolved and any further incidents should be reported.
Extra funding had been provided to DHU to support out of hours services and provision to see extra patients from across Chesterfield and North East Derbyshire at the hub at Ashgate Manor and another in Derby.
PPG Matters
It was agreed that the chair contact dormant members who had not been heard from in the past year to ask whether they wished to continue to be a member. The practice will confirm that they are still patients of RPC. There were a number, including retired health workers, who although not attending meetings wished to maintain and interest in healthcare matters locally and it was easy to continue to include them on the PPG’s distribution list.
After discussion it was agreed that Facebook was the best social mediaplatform for PPG use.
AOB
The practice said that a presentation event had taken place at Clay Cross Social Centre with all staff members present and that several awards had been made, this had been a very enjoyable and successful event.
One member wished everyone a Happy Christmas and New Year, they went on to thank the staff at RPC for doing a brilliant job in a most challenging and difficult year. The chair echoed these remarks. They have said the care they’ve received this year from everyone at the practice had been first class. They also thanked the members of staff who had supported the group and attended PPG meetings. The chair wished both members of the PPG and all RPC staff a very Merry Christmas and a Happy & Healthy New Year and this was echoed by various members of the PPG
The next meeting will be a member only meeting on 19th January 2023, Merry Christmas!