Previous Meeting Minutes

Wednesday 14th September 2022

Wednesday 12th March 2025: 5pm

Welcome

Two new members – Introduction

Present:

14 members in attendance, Dr Alford, GP Joanne Hodge patient Experience Manager, Sally Fox PCN Manager, Graham Smith Community Links

Minute taker: PPG Secretary CM

Apologies:

1 member

Matters arising from previous minutes

Community Link drop-in centre: 1 member attended on the group's behalf, the drop in had been slow to start, but is now picking up with more attendees

Acceptance of previous minutes as a true record: Agreed

Practice update

• Dr Alford

Results of practice survey

• 87% of patients found Receptionists to be helpful which was higher than local and national average
• 96% of patients had confidence and trust in in healthcare professional during appointment
• 90% of patients felt their needs were met during last appointment
• 33% of patients Usually get to see their preferred healthcare professional when they would like to. the practice is working on this, under the new system online triage form looked at by the GP each day; to increase continuity factor, patients tend to accept an appointment based on sooner rather than same doctor.

Staffing situation

The staffing is stable at present. One doctor to return from maternity leave. It was noted patients had been waiting a long time for bloods taken, nursing and health care staff also due to return which will make a difference. There is a new registrar in place and the F2 doctor will be leaving soon. 

New GP Contact 

the new contract conditions have been accepted here. some practices are working to rule, we have not been doing this here at Bedlingtonshire. No industrial action. It was asked how the budget will affect us? The practice gets £111 per patient with fixed amounts Bedlington will make it work effectively.

SystmOnline update

• Joanne

Overall, very positive feedback for the new system. 

Feedback received where patients feel they have found staff to be unhelpful and have had difficulty using the system is followed up by JH with further customer care training. Overall staff have been helping vulnerable and patients having difficulty to fill in the forms with 25% of forms filled in by patient service officers, which is good. The practice have put together a step-by-step guide for patients, to help use the system, JH also offered to go along to the local church group meetings to advise on how to use the system and help with any questions or queries, this was declined at the time. It was suggested; this is possibly something the members could offer to help patients within surgery if felt it was needed.

It was noted that sometimes a photograph link does not work. The practice receives many photograph links, this can sometime be a problem with the patient's phone, if the practice are made aware this can be checked to see if the link has sent correctly and if not, another link can be sent. The practice are aware there are still glitches to be ironed out, we can receive up to 290 online requests, particularly on a Monday morning, patients do have to fill in boxes that you would think would be automatically filled in.

• Family & Friends (Joanne)

Results for Dec – Very good - 161 - Good 25 Poor – 4 Very Poor - 2 Excellent. comments read out by JH, extremely commendable, however some poor, JH responds to these on information noticeboard as forms are anonymous. Member suggested could the members help with the F&F forms handing out to patients. Member had previously helped with this, and we did have a slight increase in forms returned, any help would be welcome. SF (PCN) informed Bedlingtonshire has the highest data collection information for Family & Friends.

• DNA (Joanne)   

December 24 – 278 patients did not attend appointments = 85hrs wasted

January 25 – 209 patients did not attend appointments = 59 hrs wasted

Information is updated monthly, figures are not improving, offenders tend to be middle aged range, but generally it is across the board. It was noted the graph of the system was useful to have at these meetings. It was noted that the waiting room tv loop had not been up to date, JH informed this is now up to date, explaining the TV had been off due to a new loop system being added which then had to be updated once switched on.

• PPG Recruitment (Joanne)

The group welcomed 2 new members to the meeting this evening 

Community Links (Graham smith)

GS informed of the services available to BMG, which is the Walk and Talk, Lego therapy groups amongst others (all information regarding groups on waiting room notice board) GS is in attendance between 8.30 – 12 midday on Monday mornings at our surgery, attendance is rising GS discussed he is looking into initial stage mini health checks,  which he  will take forward with the surgery .

GS was thanked for his input 

PCN (Sally fox)          

New GP Contract 25/26 to beat the 8am rush. As a PCN already doing this including Bedlingtonshire there will not be a huge difference come springtime. The new 10-year plan will see a greater change, but now not a lot of change for Bedlingtonshire .

Any Other Business

It was noted by the vice chairman of the group, that Health Watch run sessions in the area, members can go on their website for dates. SF informed that Derry Newgent was knowledgeable about the county, there is a poster re health watch in the waiting room. Vice chairman also informed NAPP were very useful as a resource and comments from other practices. JH informed the subscription has doubled this year; therefore, the practice would not be looking to renew this. SF informed would make enquiries to see if we could join as a PCN.

Date of next meeting:

• June 4th 2025

Close Meeting: 6.25pm 

Thanks to everyone

Chris