PPG: Meeting Minutes 1st June 2021

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• Date: 1st June 2021
• Time: 2:00pm via Zoom
• Attendees: Adrienne Banks (AB) - Anthony Marks -  Ashok Jadeja(AJ) - Cassie Williams (CW) - Esther Meyerson (EM) - Hadiba Mirza (HM) - Ingrid Babcock (IB) - Isha Richards (IR) - John Rokos (JR) - John Hadley (JH) - Jud Barker (JB) - Mary Weaving (MW) - Patricia Idusogie (PI) - Rachel Lissauer (RL)

Agenda Items

Welcome & Apologies:

EM welcomed all to the meeting. We also had 3 visitors who joined our meeting from the North London Clinical Commissioning Group (RL), (AM) & (IR). Viv, Victorine and Val send their apologies.

Approval of Minutes of the last meeting (EM)

Last meeting Minutes were agreed.

NCLCCG presentation and questions/answer

EM thanked the NCLCCG group for attending the PPG meeting. The PPG had a few questions that they wanted to put forward surrounding the procurement process and why the PPG and patients of the Staunton Group Practice had not been notified and how there was a lack of feedback throughout the process.

The fact that no communication was forth coming to the stakeholders and PPG has led to a break down in trust with the NCLCCG. The patients and the PPG felt their input as stakeholders was not sought nor were they informed how the process of procurement was conducted.

RL explained to the group what the process entails and how selections for procurement are made. RL explained that there is a procurement process which includes a panel to make the decision after a rigorous process. AM stated that he had visited the practice and he held 2 meetings with some of the patients of the practice.

AM stated that a survey had been printed out for the patients to pick up from the surgery and digital copies were made available for all patients of the surgery to complete. The meeting were set up to hear the concerns of the patients and to ascertain what their concerns were and what they wanted the surgery to provide to improve health care.

EM stated that the survey was not run effectively as only a small percentage of the surgery population participated. The survey had requested patients to tick if they wanted feedback of the results of the survey before the next stage, but no feedback was provided to the patients or the PPG. EM stated that the patients wanted feedback regarding continuity of care, seeing the same clinician, how can expectations be managed, what the patients can expect and how could patients and the PPG have a common purpose if they are not involved.

MW stated as stakeholders, the patient’s view as well as the PPG should have been consulted. AM stated that he had taken the feedback provided from the group on board and will ensure that this information is cascaded to the panel, so that in the future patients and PPG are provided with better communication. IB wanted to know what changes would occur as a result of what had been learned from the meeting today and would any changes be made and what could be done better. IB wanted to know how the group could register their experience of the way things were handled.

EM asked who the PPG could write to voice their concerns. RL Suggested a letter to Paul Sinden, Chief Operating Officer of NCLCCG. It was agreed to send letter to Paul Sinden via IR. JB asked if the caretaking had been extended for another 3 months, and AM stated that he had been extended.

Practice Update

MW raised question as to when we would be able to go back to pre-COVID where patients could book online face to face appointment. HM stated the face to face appointments have always been available even during the height of COVID. HM stated that in March 2021 we had 180 Telephone triage calls and 48 face to face appointments and in May we had 46 face to face appointments. The reason why the face to face in May was slightly lower was due to the ANP not been available. HM stated that we have relaxed the rules for the vulnerable patients and the clinicians have been asked to see patients who ask to be seen.HM stated face to face appointments were fully booked. MW asked if we would ever go back to pre – Covid when patients could call to book an appointment. HM stated that we have more contact through telephone triage and the plan was to make changes to the current rota, but since we were not sure if the caretaking contract would continue we did not want to make massive changes that would require training. HM stated that the practice was considering face to face appointments for one session per day as a norm.

The feedback we have received from patients is that they are happy as they have contact with a clinician and if they need to be seen for an appointment is booked within a week or two. HM also stated that much more home visits are been carried out than before pre-Covid.

EM stated that she and the PPG did really appreciates the work that all clinical and admin staff have done in midst of all the uncertainty with the care taking.

Any other business

EM spoke about the issue of NHS Digital and the issue of third party sharing. EM also stated that all patients have till the 23rd to OPT out. EM stated that she would like to know who these 3rd parties were. CW stated she would take this away and find out more about it. CW said she would check with Michael Fox as he was more informed about of this nature. AJ seemed to think that the 3rd party was the NHS and not outside the NHS.

The concern was the request that the patients had to complete the form to opt out and return the form to the surgeries.

This raises a lot of concern about numbers of patients coming into the surgery with their forms and patient traffic in the surgery in this climate. A letter will be sent to the appropriate group to find out more about the NHS digital process.

Date of the Next meeting

July 13th, 2021 at 2 PM