Minutes of Patient Group Meeting held on Wednesday 26th October 2011 at The Shady Oak
KW thanked everyone for giving up their time to attend. Everyone introduced themselves.
KW stated what the Government expectations are from the group
“to ensure that patients are involved in decisions about the range and quality of services provided and over time commissioned by their practice”
Discussion about how this translates into practice. KW stated that the practice is keen to involve patients. It is a great practice but we can get better with patient help. Experience from other patient groups shows that they work well if led by the patients not the practice. KW very willing to attend and advise on whether ideas might be achievable from a practice point of view.
LH suggested a “WOW board” – to communicate the positive things that are achieved by the group and the practice. Agreed this could be part of the patient group notice board.
Maggie felt that the group should be thinking about what services the practice as part of the GP consortium should be aiming for. Others disagreed and felt that it was important to find out what the issues were first from patients. KW stated that the group needed to push itself forward if it wanted to influence change.
The patient survey
A) How to reach everyone
The group agreed that we need a big patient response to the survey and that some action was required to ensure that the survey reached as many people as possible. Many ideas were suggested and discussed:
An advert in the “Stockport Review” – does this get to everyone?
A public announcement in the local paper - does this get to everyone?/ cost?
Note on prescriptions
Note on the website
Devise some system where the survey is attached to patient’s prescriptions, particularly so that housebound patients can be involved. Ask the chemists to help
Advert in chemists windows/coffee shops – KW advised caution as need to ensure not construed as advertising
Email the survey to patients
Text patients and ask them to come and fill the survey in
B) Capacity to Collate the results
LH asked if there were likely to be capacity issues at the practice if thousands of surveys were completed. KW advised yes, some could be collated by the website automatically but generally it is a manual task which is very time consuming. Several group members advised that they would be happy to help collate the responses in January 2012. KW to ensure that any surveys given to group members for collation contain no patient details.
C) The Survey
Discussed each question on the previously circulated draft. KW had asked the Virtual Group about its priorities. Agreed that the group did not feel it appropriate to ask patients to comment on staff or doctors abilities as there is already a complaints process in place to deal with any patient concerns regarding this.
Agreed to state why we are asking patients to fill the survey in.
Agreed to only ask questions about things which are achievable, for example, the question about parking was removed as nothing can be done about this either practice due to planning constraints at Bramhall and lack of control or input at the Shaw Heath site which is PCT owned.
Several questions removed and others added to. Discussed how to design the survey to get to the root of any issues. For example “ Do you have a preferred time to visit the doctor?” Please state. Instead of a list of times with a tick box. KW advised that in her opinion opening hours will be a big issue. The group agreed that the demand for more hours has to be balanced with the availability of medical staff and the fact that medical staff have a life outside the practice!
Next Steps
KW to redesign the survey and distribute to the group with the aim of a start date of 4th November, agreed to run the process for 2 months until the end of December 2011. Volunteers to meet in early January 2012 to help collate the survey. KW has no objection to volunteers picking up a pile of the completed surveys from the practice to collate at home provided there are no patient details identifiable. The group to meet in February 2012 to discuss and comment on the findings. The group will then help the practice agree an action plan for any changes and this will be published on the website in March 12.
Other Issues discussed
Noticeboard/Communication board – all agreed that this required to aid communication – KW to arrange. Group members to be involved in its design and upkeep.
Test Results by Phone – discussion about receptionists giving these out over the phone. Password? – to be discussed at a future meeting. Nurses need to give clear instructions to patients about how to obtain their results. KW suggested that by having a blood test patients are giving their implied consent to be contacted about the result – all agreed that the system needs some group input.
Awareness sessions – Joan, Maggie and John all keen on raising awareness of various issues. Joan advised that her sister’s patient group had managed to be involved in setting up a slimming club. Maggie advised of awareness talks about varying clinical issues which are held at Stepping Hill – all agreed that it would be good to have these advertised on the noticeboard. John has plenty of information regarding carers. Linda will have a think about targeting mums with young children