Last Meeting Notes and Matters Arising

There were no questions relating to the minutes of the previous meeting on 3rd December 2024.

Pro-Active Care

Victoria McDermott (Pro-active Care Manager) and Dr Joe McManners (Clinical Lead for Pro-active Care) gave an interesting and informative talk about the work of Proactive Care team which has been in place for approximately 4 years and focusses on care for patients with complex needs.

The purpose is to provide holistic proactive care that is easy for patients to access.

A document ‘Oxford Proactive and Triaged Healthcare’ was handed out at the meeting.

Proactive Care is structured into four categories, or levels, and patients are assigned to the appropriate level depending upon their needs. 

There are currently 350 patients assigned to level 1, this representing the virtual ward for patients with the greatest needs. These patients can speak directly with the Proactive care team.

Patient referrals come to the team come from various channels, including the triage process at the surgery, also hospital discharge lists which are reviewed daily.

Multidisciplinary meetings are held with various health and care professionals, including care co-ordinators, paramedics, nurses and social prescribers. Three GP’s also work with the team.

The weekly Integrated Neighbourhood Team multidisciplinary meeting is attended by a wider group including social services, mental health, community nurses.

Information was also shared on ‘Co-production’ which is a way of working that involves consultation between various health care streams to design a service. 

Nicole is doing research in relation to the Integrated Neighbourhood Team and is looking for participants to join the project. If you wish to take part please put yourself forward via the Executive Committee.

The talk prompted the following questions from PPG members:

Report of Executive Committee for 2024 to 2025 (Peter Coggins)

Peter shared the annual report with the PPG members prior to the meeting and there were no questions raised, or clarifications sought.

Election of Chair, Vice-Chair and Secretary for 2025 to 2026

• John Ashton is elected as Chairperson 
• Jean Mulligan is elected as Vice-chairperson
• Lynda Southern is elected as Secretary

Election of three additional members to the Executive Committee for 2025 to 2026

Peter Coggins, Cathy Eaton, & Viv Miles are elected

Manor Update (Emily Shipway)

On behalf of the practice Emily thanked Peter for his 3 year tenure as PPG chairperson. 

The recently introduced Executive Committee meets approximately once per month, and interaction with the Practice has been good.

Patient numbers: there are currently 25,869 patients registered with the Practice. Headington represents 20446, Kennington 5423.

The total staff number is 103, plus an additional 5 registrars (trainee GP’s).

Of the 103, 26 are GP’s and there are currently no GP vacancies.

Projects

• A new Recall system (Abtrace) is due to be launched at the beginning of April. For patients with multiple conditions subject to recall, the system will streamline these into a single appointment eliminating the need for multiple surgery visits for the patient and improving efficiency for the GP’s. 
• There is a drive to increase the uptake of childhood immunisations
• Triage process review - on a typical Monday morning there can be up to 250 patient requests needing to be triaged, a higher number than other days of the week. Some of these requests may be due to the restriction of not being available to submit requests over the weekend; on-line requests can be submitted between the hours of 8am and 6pm Monday to Thursday and 8am and 4pm Friday. The practice is seeking to make improvements to the Accurx system including directing patient through self-help content prior to submitting a new request. Note: Prescription requests can be submitted at any time via the NHS application.

Other Updates

• The Practice has a monthly meeting to review the Clinical Governance structure and review the associated policies.
• The Clinical Educational program is ongoing, and the surgery is closed for one afternoon every couple of months to facilitate this.
• A new system has been introduced for new patient registrations and is working well.
• Minor changes have been recently made to the practice boundaries for both Headington & Kennington. Further changes for Kennington are being considered.
• The practice is set to launch new website pages within the next few weeks. Emily agreed to provide access to Jean for review prior to this.  

PPG Questions

Q: Do we know how many of the patients do not have internet access?

A: This information is not available 

Q: Do we know how many patients do not understand the English language?

A: The webpages are available in other languages.

Spring Covid Boosters

Clinics will commence on 1st April for the over 75’s and immunosuppressed. Three Saturday clinics are planned at Headington, and 1 Friday clinic at Kennington. Emily will let the PPG know if volunteers are needed.

The Practice Newsletter

Due to be published within the next few weeks.

Integrated Care Board

Planned changes to the ICB and NHS England are of some concern. The ICB focus is at a local level so this is being followed closely.

Future Talks 

‘Co-Production’ was suggested as a topic for a future meeting.

All ideas are welcome, please submit these to the Chairperson or any member of the Executive Committee.

Any Other Business

• Margaret raised concern that patients in remote areas may be isolated because of the BT switch to DigitalVoice.

Upcoming Events 

• The Older People’s Day this year is on Wednesday 1st October 2025.
• There is an open meeting at the Town Hall on March 25th in the St Aldates Room. Susan Brown will talk on ‘Devolution’.
• Sir Andrew Dilnot will deliver a talk on Aging & Care at Oxford Brookes, Headington Campus, on Thursday 20th March 2025 from 4pm. 

Date of Next PPG Meeting

17th June at 4pm, Kennington