Last meeting notes / Matters arising since the last meeting

• Home visits in Radley area – the primary care visiting service does not go beyond the practice boundary and there are currently no plans to expand the boundary.
• Electric vehicle - the practice does not currently have an electric vehicle. It is possible that electric points may be put into Kennington in the future.
• Back Office workload backlog – good progress has been made in clearing the backlog of unprocessed letters which had been as high as 2000. Across both practices approximately 200 letters per day are received.
• Letters from hospitals (clinical) are mainly delivered to the practice electronically, and the target time to assign these to a patient file is 24hrs, followed by a further period of 48 hrs for review. Three members of staff are assigned to managing the incoming letters.
• Lab results received are managed separately to this process by 1 member of the administration team, these results are assigned to the relevant GP.

The New Constitution – Peter Coggins

• The revised constitution, superseding previous constitutions for both Manor and Kennington, was passed by way of a vote at the meeting.
• Going forward the PPG will meet quarterly.
• The Executive Committee will meet monthly with the Practice Manager to discuss PPG business, including topics such as future strategy & communications. Minutes of the Executive Committee meeting with be shared with the PPG members. There will be 6 members comprising 3 from each site and the initial members are Peter, Viv and Lynda from Headington, John, Cathy and Jean from Kennington.

Future Communication Strategy

• Membership of the PPG is to be discussed at the Executive Committee meeting with regards to verifying existing members.
• How to engage a wider range of members was discussed. Cath stated this is a challenge faced by most PPG’s and inviting feedback via a questionnaire during a surgery visit had been relatively successful at another practice in terms of feedback on the services offered by the practice as well as identifying areas for improvement.
• Various future communications methods were discussed, and there is a volunteer (Diane) offering to manage a PPG Facebook page. The Practice already has a Facebook page; the introduction of a PPG Facebook Page needs careful consideration. Additionally, thought should be given to the most appropriate social media platform as others are available and may be more appealing to the target audience. Emily suggested a social media policy may be appropriate. Peter pointed out that the new Constitution provides for a Practice Newsletter. Maya offered to contribute to discussions on the topic of communications, with a view of how to reach younger patients. She suggested Instagram. Maya has a friend who wants to study Medicine and she thinks would relish volunteering to help with the PPG’s use of social media.
• The structure of future PPG meetings and how to engage, e.g. in person or remotely via Microsoft Teams, was discussed. Emily commented on technology constraints at the Surgery & challenges with hybrid meetings.

The above PPG points will be discussed at the Exec Committee meeting.

Surgery Updates – specific to Kennington (Emily)

• There are 2 GPs at Kennington, 3 on Mondays (some are locums)
• There will be a new GP 2 days per week commencing April.
• Dr Treadwell is doing 3 days at Kennington
• A Clinical Lead is still required, this has been advertised and interviews are planned for w/c 4th March.
• In terms of Support staff there are 3 receptionists, a Prescription Clerk, Operations Manager, Finance Manager, 2 x Care Coordinators.
• The Group Practice Manager and HR Lead are currently spending 2 days per week on site at Kennington.
• The practice is seeing new registrations from people within the Kennington area, and requests for house-bound visits have also increased (the city team are helping with assessments).
• The Welfare call process is being introduced; eligible patients receive a weekly call from the surgery.
• The practice is also focussing on identifying patients who could benefit from inclusion in the Long-term Condition process.

Surgery updates – specific to Headington (Emily):

• Nursing staff from the Manor surgery are working across both Kennington and Headington surgeries providing services in the following areas: Diabetes, Phlebotomist, Cardiovascular, Respiratory, Wound Care, Women’s Health, Social Prescribing, Coil Service
• Named doctor – Viv shared a press article entitled “Benefits of seeing the same GP”. Emily advised that having a named doctor is not pro-actively promoted for all patients; it is prioritised based on individuals’ healthcare needs. Although individual patient requests for a named GP can be made, the drawbacks of seeing the same GP each time should also be considered; a patient may need to wait longer than necessary for an appointment which for unrelated health matters is unnecessary.
• E-consult was identified as an area where education could drive use and improve the patient experience. The e-form is not available for patients outside of normal hours. This is restricted for reasons of patient safety.
• Integrated Neighbourhood teams – this national program is being rolled out to all PCN locations.

Staff at Manor Surgery

• Recruitment is underway for GPs at Manor Surgery and they have been inundated with applications
• Two staff members are due to go on maternity leave soon.
• A Pharmacist is due to return from maternity leave soon.
• The BBC visited on Tuesday to see how the Integrated Care Team worked.

NHS Pharmacy First Program

This service was recently launched with the aim of allowing Pharmacists to provide some specific care without patients needing to visit their GP. There are some specific points that need to be clarified, the Manor Group are in discussion with some local pharmacies and will advise further in due course.

Subjects for future talks

Noemi proposed the topic of ‘Language used in medicine’ for a future meeting as she knows someone studying this topic.

Any Other Business

Peter said that HealthWatch were doing a survey of PPGs. He will send it out to members so that they can complete it if they wish. He has done it.

Date of next meeting

Tuesday 21st May 2024, 4pm, at Kennington.