Patient Participation Group

Our Patient Participation Group (PPG) meets to provide a forum for discussion about the practice.

PPG Minutes: 26th November 2024

New Telephone System

• Information re providing feedback online on the new telephone system was distributed to all members of the panel.
• The new system is exactly the same as the old system, just more expensive, so it gives no advantage to the patient or the surgery, just extra cost. The Government paid for the installation, but the practice has to fund the additional running costs.
• It is claimed that the system will help with the 8:00am rush but, whilst everyone is told they must ring at 8:00am to get an appointment on that day, the 8:00am rush will not improve.
• It was discussed that 8:00am is a very inconvenient time for patients to ring. If they have to get children ready for school, they are unable to ring at that time.  If they commute to work, it is often impossible to call whilst on the way to work and they will not necessarily be able to return from work for an appointment that day.
• Patients have been told that they can now ring later and there will be appointments available in the afternoon.
• The queue on the phone line is still very long when you ring up, despite all hands on deck at 8:00am.
• Patients do not like to use ring back as they are worried that they will lose their place in the queue.
• Ring back will call patients back twice, but generally patients are not aware of this so, if they miss a call, they will call back.
• There are now more ‘book in advance’ appointments, two or three in the morning and two or three in the afternoon on every doctor clinic.
• All appointments are 15 minutes, even phone call appointments, as this should allow the doctor enough time to type up notes from the appointment.
• Patients can make appointments with the nurse or the nurse practitioner at any time.

Pharmacy First

• The Pharmacy First system was discussed. Local pharmacies such as the one at Bannerbrook can now give out/prescribe treatments, including antibiotics for certain problems such as eye infections, urine infections, sore throat, infected bites.  They can only prescribe relative to these minor ailments.  They are unable to prescribe for other ailments or renew prescriptions for existing conditions
• The pharmacy can deal with and prescribe, providing they follow the guidelines, but a lot of people will not go to the pharmacist or are unaware of this new availability as it has only existed for about 6 months.
• If a patient is entitled to free prescriptions, the pharmacist can prescribe these items. There are certain things that doctors will no longer prescribe, and these may have to be bought.
• The chemist does not do all the checks and tests that may be carried out.  For instance, in the case of a urine infection the pharmacist may not do a urine test, so the patient would not know which urine infection they had and whether they had been prescribed the correct antibiotic to treat it.  If the condition persists, the patients would need to send a sample to the laboratory for checking.

Changes to the Partnership

• There are 6 partners at the surgery. However, their working patterns will be changing. 
• Dr Sabah Ghouri is a new salaried doctor who has joined the practice to help where people have changed sessions. She is very experienced.
• Dr Newbold will only be off on leave for six months. Rather than get a locum to cover for her, the partners are hoping to find a salaried replacement for a fixed period.

ARRS Roles

• Five GP practices share service funding in a network of practices called Go West. The services provided include weight management, pharmacist, social prescriber, physiotherapy and paramedic.
• The Social Prescriber role provides support to patients who are not coping with life. First contact is initially by phone.
• The Physiotherapist for our practice cannot work at the Tile Hill surgery as there is no suitable room.  She therefore only works from Westminster Road, plus she does joint injections.
• The Go West service is expanding to include GPs, who need to have been qualified for more than two years.  Interviews are being held for this post and, when it is filled, our practice will get 2 sessions a week from the GP. There is a possibility that this GP will do the Care Home visits for the practice, but this depends on who is employed and their experience

Effects of the rise in NI and Minimum Wage on the Practice

• The rise in NI will cost the practice an extra £22,000 and the rise of the minimum wage in April will have a knock-on effect on all wage costs. All wages will have to go up incrementally, but this has to be done out of the current budget.  Our options are that the doctors take a pay cut, or that we do not replace staff who leave.
• Other expenses are going up too and it all has to be dealt with out of the same budget.
• The rules regarding sick leave currently are: if you are off sick you do not get paid for the first three days of sick leave, which means that the practice has the money from the salary to pay for a replacement. Labour has plans to change this so that a member of staff receives sick pay from day one, which is lovely for the person who is off sick but means that the practice does not have the money to pay for cover. We have 19 staff – if any leave or are off sick, there will be longer wait times and possibly fewer appointments. The Practice Manager is working though the possible options to try to make the practice as efficient as it can be with these added problems.

Practice Premises 

The costs and the unsuitability of the premises for the practice were discussed. The budget for our costs is relatively low compared to other practices in the area who get more money, so it is difficult for our practice to improve the building or find better premises.  The ICB has been looking at the possibility of using Eastern Green build monies to build new practice premises, but so far they have not got anywhere with this.  This is work that is currently being undertaken.

Medical Secretaries

The number of medical secretaries at the practice was discussed, and whether it would make the system more efficient if they typed up the doctors’ notes. There are two medical secretaries, one working 25 hours and one working 15 hours, and there are two GP Assistants. The doctors have tried an AI system called ‘HEIDI” to dictate their notes, but it has been found easier and better if the doctor types up their notes within the 15 minute appointment. 

Flu Jabs

All home visit flu jabs have now been completed except for one lady, but we are trying to organise her appointment. It was discussed whether all asthmatics and diabetics have been called in for their injections. This is going to be checked up.

Menopause and HRT

It was discussed whether there is a menopause and HRT specialist among the doctors.  Doctor D’Mello does a lot of work with HRT and Ashley runs an HRT clinic.