PPG: Meeting Minutes 13th July 2021

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• Date: 13th July 2021
• Time: 2:00pm via Zoom
• Attendees: Adrienne Banks (AB) - Ashok Jadeja (AJ) - Cassie Williams (CW) - Esther Meyerson (EM) - Hadiba Mirza (HM) - Ingrid Babcock (IB) - John Rokos (JR) - John Hadley (JH) - Jud Barker (JB) - Mary Weaving (MW) - Patricia Idusogie (PI) - Sue Leveson (SL)

Agenda Items

Welcome & Apologies:

EM welcomed all to the meeting. Viv, Victorine and Val send their apologies.

Approval of Minutes of the last meeting (EM)

Last meeting Minutes were agreed

EM said she had not heard back from Paul Sinden. EM stated that with the support of the PPG Members, she was going to send a letter to Catherine West to see if could get a response. EM stated that it was acknowledged the Paul Sinden had received the letter, and if she did not hear anything by the end of the week she would send the letter to Catherine West. All members of the PPG agreed to this decision.

MW had a correction to make on the last minutes; MW was asking when we would return to pre Covid when patients would be allowed to book face to face online appointments. EM asked CW if there was anything more about NHS Digital. CW informed the group that they had a delayed a bit longer the piece of work around automatically signing people up, as people did not feel they had enough information. CW confirmed that when NHS Digital says 3rd party, this does not refer to business and companies, or commercial companies, it is more NHS Planning and research companies. The plan is to share completely anonymized data, which would be not be identifiable by patient.

The purpose for this, is to know how many people in Haringey have chronic diseases such Diabetes, Asthma or COPD etc. It is for this reason that the data would be shared. The option to OPT out is available online, the web address was sent out of the last agreed minutes and it is also on the web site.

Practice Update

CW stated that the contract had been extended till the end of September. CW stated that everyone is still very committed, even though it has created uncertainty amongst the staff. CW informed the group that any staff with a contract would be TUPED over. JB asked about staff morale, CW stated that a Summer Party event had been organized for the staff. CW also informed the group that additional training was been provided for the staff. EM asked to convey to the staff and clinical team the PPG’s appreciation for their efforts.

PI provided telephone data for the previous 3 month; the reception staff answered 10,938 calls in June. The percentage of answered calls was 68.3%. In May we answered 9572 calls and the percentage of answered calls was 67.6% . We had 2 Bank Holidays in May hence the volume is lower. In April we answered 11,488 calls and our percentage was 58.6%. The data is shared with the staff and everyone is mindful of calls waiting in the queue. We are getting fewer complaints about the long waits for calls to be answered.

EM had questions of the options. Option 1 is an emergency or urgent query. If you press option 3, 4 or 5 and the call is not picked up right away one is given the option to press option 1 to receive a call back or return one to his/her positon in the queue. PI also shared the appointment data, face to face and telephone consultations. EM stated that the figure of face to face was getting closer to the Telephone consultations. EM also mentioned that access was a major issue in Haringey.

Any other business

MW asked about our plans for the Flu Campaign, Covid business Booster vaccine. PI informed the group of the date of our first Flu vaccine delivery and the fact that we had more than previous year as we expect more patients to take the flu vaccination. PI stated we have set up Flu clinics up for the Nurses and HCA’s and will offer Saturday Flu clinics. The PPG offered assistance if needed help with a walk through. EM spoke about the Haringey PPG conference which was held on the 19th of June. EM stated quite of a few of our PPG members attended and the information provided was useful. EM stated there was representation from Haringey Health and wellbeing committee.

EM stated that the 2 items she took from the conference was the issue of lack of patient engagement and the issue of access, what is going to happen to access after COVID.

JB wanted to know how many GP practice believe that Digital is best, rather than face to face. JB said that digital has its place but it does not replace face to face. EM stated that the plan is to make digital 80% and 20% face to face, with the plan to be at 100% digital, which does not take into account those with chronic illness. Basically they are working towards the Babylon model.

The PPG wanted to know how many of our clinician’s preferred face to face verses digital

The group requested that a poster of the NHS Digital web site should be posted in the surgery and web site.

Date of the Next meeting

September 7th 2021 at 2 PM