Patient Participation Group

August Meeting Notes

Same day service

The ‘same day’ team service, launched in August to triage patients in line with the ‘Right Person, Right Place, Right Time’ principle. The Same Day Team comprises ‘first contact’ physiotherapists, physician associates, social prescriber link workers, minor illness nurses and nurse practitioners, all directly supported by a GP.

It complements existing GP services and will, in time, be supplemented by the addition of a further triage nurse and ‘first contact’ mental health practitioners. Patients will continue to be first assessed on the telephone and invited to attend a face-to-face appointment if clinically required.

Early feedback on the service has been very positive and it continues to be reviewed and refined.

Phone system

Site surveys for the new telephone system have taken place and it is due to be in testing mode at the end of August/beginning of September. The system offers unlimited caller capacity, callback function and better data capture so that times of peak demand can be anticipated and staffed more effectively. It also ‘signposts’ people to the correct place for their needs and allows different messages to be added to different areas of the system, allowing a clearer flow of information.

Communications

The PPG is setting up a sub-group specifically to deal with communications. If you would like to receive an SMS message with a link to the latest PPG newsletter then please ensure the practice has your email address.

PPG comms will also be available on the website and in paper format at the practice.

PPG members

More people have expressed an interest in joining the PPG so they will be interviewed over the next few weeks.

Patient survey/Patient reference Group

There are plans in place to reinstate the patient survey. More details to follow. The PPG also will form a sub group to look at the benefits of forming a ‘patient reference group’ to gather feedback around issues including remote consultations. GP Martin McGrath said: ‘There is a lot that we can learn from both clinician and patient perspective and so feedback that we have via the PPG is valuable and will inform what we do.'

Corby PPG

Sept Meeting Notes

CQC monitoring update

The surgery put in a lot of work to respond to the Care Quality Commission's monitoring visit and had a productive meeting with them. Topics discussed included assessing and managing risk, continuing to assess patient needs, delivering care and treatment in line with current legislation, care pathways and addressing the backlog of demand caused by Covid. Practice Manager Emma Downs said: ‘It was a very positive meeting with the CQC and the overall feedback was good.’ The next full CQC inspection is scheduled for the end of 2024.

Surgery staff

Tracy Sumpter, who is a long-term employee, is taking over as Operations Manager as Teri White has left on promotion. A new Physician Associate is joining the practice and there is more GP recruitment in progress.

Same day team

Dr Martin McGrath gave a positive progress report on the Same Day Team

Flu vaccinations

The delivery date is out of our control and we still haven’t been informed when we can expect delivery of flu vaccines. We will get 7 days’ notice of delivery and we will reschedule appointments as soon as possible.

Blood bottle shortage

This is a national shortage. A standard operating procedure is in place to manage the situation. Those who would have been invited for a routine test are being logged in the system so they can be invited in for a test as soon as bottles become available.

PPG away day

A day is being planned for PPG members to meet face to face and discuss ongoing strategies.

Investors in Carers

The practice currently has its Bronze Investors in Carers certification and is working towards its silver award. More carers have been identified during the roll-out of the Covid vaccinations.

Published: Sep 22, 2021