PPG: Meeting Minutes 10th July 2024

 

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  • Date: 10th July 2024
  • Time: Face-to-face in the practice at 3pm to 4pm
  • Attendees: Adrienne Banks (AB), John Rokos (JR), John Hadley (JH), Louise Regan (LR), Patricia Idusogie (PI) PM Hurley, Patrick Maher (PM),  Mary Weaving (MW) (acting Chair), Christine Sherringham (Social Prescriber)

    Unless otherwise stated, attendees are PPG members
 

Agenda Items

Welcome & Apologies: (MW)

MW welcomed all to the meeting. Apologies were received from Louise Regan, Fran Wilson and Ingrid Babcock.

 

Approval of Minutes of the last meeting 

The previous meeting minutes for the minutes of the April 24th, 2024, meeting was discussed and agreed. 

 

DR Arvind Speaker on Osteoporosis & Chronic Kidney disease

Dr Arvind to speak about a research study on Osteoporosis & Chronic Kidney disease to address unmet need.

The study is using data science to improve long-term condition management and diagnosis. Dr Arvind spoke about how delayed and under-diagnosis of chronic kidney disease across the UK can lead to worsening outcomes for patients over time.  Dr Arvind provide data of the number of undiagnosed Chronic disease and data for the delayed diagnosis which can lead to worse outcomes. He also shared a proposed technology of how technology and improve existing medical practices across 125k patients.

Dr Arvind shared the benefits of the research, which is to improve patient outcome, reduce a strain on the health care system, early diagnosis and treatment can reduce harm to patients and address health inequality by understanding where underdiagnosis is notably worse than other groups.

The quarry will identify high risk patients automatically for GPs to provide earlier medical assistance to patients.

The study provided what could happen to patients with Osteoporosis under-diagnosed and untreated and how sub-optimal treatment can increase fracture risk.

Questions that were asked by the group:

  • Are there plans to target groups where we may not have the data - L.R
  • Is there a blood test to check for Osteoporosis, there is the DEXA scan - MW 
  • When will the plan be launched and when can we get funding for this - L.R

Dr Arvind thanks those who attended the session and for the brilliant questions and suggestions provided at the meeting.

 

Practice Report

Phone data

Our percentage of answered calls is improving each month, our percentage of answered calls for July was 75.7%. Our patients are utilising the callback system, which is working very well, rather than have patients queue they have the option to opt in for a callback.  Patient’s also have the option to cancel the callback if they no longer need to be called because the patient has completed an eConsult or found a solution to what they needed on the NHS APP, Patient Access APP.

One of the key areas we are working on, is ensuring that we have sufficient staff cover during the busiest time of the day as this will help reduce the patient hold time. Sometimes it is a challenge with unexpected staff sickness or emergencies occur. 

Other options such as eConsult, Pharmacy First and HUB appointments are being offered to ensure that our patients have access to appointments.

We installed an app called the Phone Bar which is a small desktop app that allows access for all telephony functionality to be controlled from the PC.  The benefits of the Phone Bar are for receptionists, as it brings up patient records in clinical systems as the call arrives. For GPs and clinicians, it allows single-click calling from the patient records, including the option of video calls, SMS messages and request photos. 

The Phone bar also allows appointment list management for telephone triage and can ensure that all communication, including call recordings*, can be saved in the patient record.

On June 19th, we had a “ Can we help you with ONLINE ACCESS Campaign Day”.  We had posters in Turkish and English.  We had over 15 patients sign up for either the NHS App or Patient Access app and some of the patients were shown how to use the eConsult platform.  The aim is to ensure that patients can access their records easily and use eConsult, which is another form of access to appointments. We are planning a similar campaign in October.

Staffing

We have hired two new salaried  GP’s, one of the GP’s is to start in July and the 2nd GP will start in September. We are very excited about the new additions to our clinical team.

Premises

I have no update concerning the premises, I know that the senior managers are working behind the scenes to ensure that the building work commences.  Once I have more information I will share it with the group.

 

Next meetings

September 11th, 2024@ 3pm at the Practice.