Minutes of Meeting: Monday 31st March 2025, 7pm

 

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Present

Jean Poole ( Chair and secretary),  Dr Vicky Smith, Dr Obi Obiagwu, Ellie Rees, Lee Atkins, Rob Munden , Tess Munden, Rebecca Corbett-Pitman, Barbara Bird, Ann Tunstall, Mike Woodward, Maureen Woodward, Lorraine Lambert ( PPG email group) 

 

Welcome

Jean thanked those attending and welcomed Lorraine who had signed up recently to the PPG email group 

 

Apologies

Trudy Gwatkin, Kerry Harding, Sharon Shaw

 

Approval of previous minutes

The minutes of 16th December were approved by the group

 

Matters arising from previous minutes

  • E-consult review – the surgery team had discussed a number of issues following the latest review. Improvements were being made to patient feedback on next steps
  1. better balance of urgent and routine appointments
  2. GPs to ring patients for same day appointments rather than text
  3. adjusting e-consult opening times to 6am Monday rather than Sunday evening

Feedback from the group was discussed.No decision has been made about adopting a different system in the future.

  • Telephone system - Suggestions were made about some changes to the automated message being used when calling the practice. Ellie will look at setting up a small group of PPG members to look at options. 
  • Patient information sessions – A key topic for a presentation later in the year is likely to be “Women’s health” – Dr Smith to investigate speaker options 
  • Car parking changes – charges were being introduced by South Glos Council including the Kennedy Way car park next to the surgery which will remain a long stay car park.   No date has yet been published but preparatory work has begun. Detailed discussions have been held over recent months to support patients attending NHS appointments. Due to limited capacity, a difficult decision has been made to restrict the private surgery car park to staff only in future with a barrier erected to control access. A computer tablet will be available at reception for patients that park in the council car park to enter their car registration number and then  park for 2 hours for free whilst attending an NHS appointment. Blue badge holders can park for free in any space for 3 hours whether or not they are attending an appointment anyway.   
 

AGM

  • As chairperson, Jean read her report for the year which was acknowledged by those present. Thanks went to her for fulfilling the roles of  both chair and secretary , as well as Tess and Rob who had acted as joint vice-chairs. 
  • Election of officers – Jean was nominated and unanimously elected as chair and secretary for a further year. Tess and Rob were also nominated and elected as joint vice-chairs.  
 

PPG issues

  • Power of attorney (POA) registration – Once a Health and Welfare POA has been granted the details can be registered at the surgery. This can be by providing a code giving specific access to Courtside from the GOV.uk website if the patient or their attorney has set up that type of account or paper copies can be scanned into GP records as an alternative. 
  • NAPP membership – It was felt that being a member of the National Association for Patient Participation was not providing anything useful so membership will not be renewed when the annual fee is due in May. 
  • Newsletters from the Patient Association and local agencies were proving useful and are distributed to the PPG committee, PPG email group and key members of the surgery team. 
  • The email group now has over 30 members. Ellie suggested that information could be posted on the surgery Facebook page to attract more patients 
  • Use of NHS app – unfortunately , apart from 3 committee members , no-one popped in to discuss the NHS app when representatives from the Care Forum attended the surgery earlier in the year to help explain it’s use. The group gave some feedback including the “frustration” of receiving a quick notification that there was a message from the surgery waiting,  without giving any details. Logging into the app was then required to see whether the message was important and action needed. Some of the group preferred text messages direct from the surgery as these were more convenient to action quickly. It was agreed that a joined up system to cover all NHS interactions would be helpful.  Feedback to be provided to Anna ( IT manager at Courtside) 
  • GP contract developments – Dr Smith explained that some extra funding had been agreed which would assist in increasing some staff salaries and supporting the increases in National Insurance . However, the surgery budget remains tight , limiting options for service development and recruitment. 
 

Courtside Issues

  • Covid vaccination clinics – these are being held on Tuesday 1st and Wednesday 9th April. There are around 1800 patients in the target group so the clinics have been planned to reflect the expected uptake. As usual the PPG will be assisting. 
  • Staffing update – Dr Appleton has now retired. Chloe Powell and Claire Barrel ( nurse practitioners) have left the practice and 3 paramedics have joined the team to cover their duties each working 2 days pw. 
    Bethan Bell ( clinical pharmacist) has worked at the practice for some time and has now become one of the partners. The maternity leave of Dr Hawkins has started and is being covered by Dr Rehman who started a few weeks ago . Dr John Akimjolire has joined the team and will be working Mon – Weds.
 

AOB

  • BP reading requests via text/link -some members commented that the timeline on the message link requesting readings was too limited – Anna (IT manager) to review
  • Medication reviews - The clinical pharmacists will be picking up more of these as available time had been increased
 

Date of Next Meeting

  • Presentation on Advanced Care planning - Monday 7th July 2025, 7pm
  • Subsequent meetings - 6th October (Incl. AGM), 15th December