Willow Tree Practice Patient Forum
9th June 2015. 5.00pm-6.00pm
Present:
Staff: ES (Evie Soares,Team Leader), DD (Dionne Doherty, Patient Forum Co0rdinator)
Guest speaker: SC (Stacy Cass, HCC), DC (Deborah Cordingley, HIT)
Patients: AF, CF, AE, ME, JC, TB
Apologies:
Staff : NR (Neil Turton, Chief Exec)
Patients: LL, TL
1 : Welcomes & Introductions
DD welcomed attendees and introduced herself to those who had not met her before
and also introduced SC.
2 : About your forum
The patient forum is an excellent tool to gain a patient’s perspective of our practice
and the services we deliver. If there are any issues concerning these services the
forum is an appropriate place to raise them. We can also acknowledge the
successes of the practice and discuss new and innovative ways to improve whilst
gaining valuable feedback from our patients.
Note: while we can discuss general problems the patients have encountered, we
cannot discuss items specifically about their cases as that would breach patient
confidentiality. Any concerns or complaints regarding specifics of their healthcare
should be directed to the Team Leader on site, and escalated to the Clinical Director
or via NHS England, if the patient wishes to speak to an external agency.
3: Partner Health Campaigns
SC addressed the group and listed the health campaigns she was currently
promoting. These included bowel cancer, a number of long term health conditions,
NHS health checks and dementia related health issues.
She elaborated on the work of HCC and informed the group that the organisation
now had 189 team members.
SC spoke about the necessity for bowel screening every two years for those patients
over the age of 60.
SC then held a ‘light hearted’ quiz sheets and all attendees joined in the game. The
quiz highlighted the current NHS health check promotion. All attendees agreed that
this was a fun way to raise awareness of 5 yearly health checks available to all 40-74
year olds.
DC introduced herself and informed the group that as well as health checks for
patients there was the opportunity of a ‘Mini MOT’ for those individuals who may not
qualify for the health check.
DC also discussed the recent cutbacks which have reduced her team by 50%. These
cutbacks unfortunately affected the current H.I.T. Timetable. She added that the
cutbacks and poor attendance at some classes meant that some courses had to be
cancelled but reminded the group that there is always the possibility of new groups
and courses. If patients had suggestions or ideas they would like to put forward she
would love to hear from them.
ME asked “what about sleep issues”?
DC listed issues that could get in the way of a goodnight’s sleep. SC added that
HCC are currently engaging families to help them tackle sleep issues relating to
dementia. She said that HCC are looking for volunteers to train as sleep therapists.
The training would take place over 3 days on 25th and 26th of June and the 9th July
2015 at Pendlebury Gateway. SC agreed to send a job description to DD so that she
could display it on the notice board at the practice.
ES asked “Can we go to the H.I.T. for a health check as well as our G.P?”
DC replied “Yes of course, there are set days and times for health check being
offered by 8 teams throughout Salford via the Health Improvement Team.”
DC said that the H.I.T. are here to meet the needs of people in Salford and they try
to target groups in need of support. She went on to speak about the great work being
done by Keeping Well who are currently working with individuals in Salford to help
them manage their wellbeing and tackle any fears and anxieties they may have. She
added “we will offer guidance, support and help to any community group.”
ME asked how do we contact you and DC said anyone can contact her on 0161 212
4509, her direct line. DC added that she would like to invite anyone wanting to be
involved in an event in Sept called Plant, Grow,Cooke and Eat to get in touch with
her.
ACTION-DD TO RECEIVE JOB DESCRIPTION FROM SC AND DISPLAY ON NOTICE BOARD.
3: Practice Update
Staff
We have a new practice nurse, Margaret Wheelan at the Willow Tree. She has a
wealth of knowledge and experience of working in a primary care setting and we are
very pleased she has chosen to join our team.
Acknowledgements
DD informed attendees that we have gained 4 out of 5 stars on the NHS Choices
website. We are so pleased that our patients have written such positive reviews!
You can read these reviews and write one of your own by visiting their website and
entering ‘Salford Health Matters’ into the search box.
Our Website
The new website is live! Please take a look and let us know what you think.
Quality Improvement
DD informed attendees that SHM have been part of a CCG funded project to train
some of our staff in Quality Improvement methodology - it's all about using small
tests of change to bring about large scale improvement.
Our project aim was to respond within 2 hours for 100% urgent calls and within 6
hours for 95% of non-urgent calls, 8am-6:30pm Mon-Fri, to meet the ‘Greater
Manchester Healthier Together Out of Hospital Standard’ regarding access to
primary care. The project has been running since last June and we have now
completed the formal training. We are very keen to embed the 'Quality Improvement'
methodology across the whole organisation.
Our Quality Improvements include introducing centralised call handling and the new
phone system, adding a message for patients to call before 5.30pm and employing a
Practice Pharmacist.
We will be running the project until October 2015 and we are now focusing on
getting the right staff in place, matching the staffing in the Central Hub to call
volumes, giving GPs more time to contact and see patients and managing patients
appropriately at first contact.
7: Actions from Previous Minutes
Moving the GPs to rooms closer to the Reception Area
Good progress has been made on this matter. At present we are about to make
these changes to the lease at a cost of approx £2/3000, in response to our patients
request.
There a few additional changes we are making to the lease which are holding things
up but once these have been finalised we can finalised the amendments and GP’s
can move rooms so that they are nearer to the reception area
8: Any Other Business
ME asked why patients can’t call direct to the Willow Tree instead of going through to
the Central Hub.
ES explained that by calling the Central Hub and using the Doc First service every
patient is guaranteed to receive a call back from a clinician rather than solely
speaking to a receptionist about their health issue.
JC said that she didn’t like telling the staff at the Central Hub about her ailments and
last time she said she’d rather not discuss her health issue over the phone with
someone in the hub she was told that she’s have to wait longer than usual for a call
back if she didn’t leave details with the staff.
ME said that she liked the call back service and found it useful to talk to the central
hub staff so that health issues could be sorted out then and then rather than waiting
for an appointment.
ES reassured JC that the information that the staff at the hub received from patients
was treated with strict confidentiality but if patients wished to bypass this service they
could use our On Line service to request a call back and the clinician would be the
only person to view the details on screen before calling them.
ES then handed out on line service request forms for patients present to fill in. She
informed the attendees that once they had filled the forms in and given them in at
reception a password would be generated for them to access the service. She added
that there was a period of one month before the password would expire if it hadn’t
been used in that time.
DD said that we will soon be advertising the on line service throughout all practices
and as soon as the mobile phone app has been fully approved that too will be
promoted, giving patients more flexibility when contacting us and accessing our
services.
DD added , now that we have the new website up and running we will start posting
the minutes from our forums on there so that all patients can view them and
hopefully get involved.
ES asked whether we can find a way to collect patient feedback and suggestions via
the website or an email address and DD agreed that having a ‘virtual patient forum
attendee’ service would be useful.
Action-discuss with NT opportunity for virtual patient feedback through email
address or website.
Attendees asked whether there was opportunity for a session to learn to use the on
line service and DD suggested that we may be able to use a room in the Willow Tree
at the next Patient Forum to show them how to access the service.
DC said that Kelly Rae from Broughton Hub had 10 laptops that she could possibly
let us use to for this.
Action- contact Kelly Rae from Broughton Hub re laptops.
Contact Big Life Company to discuss use of empty rooms in the building.
ME asked whether the issue of the pharmacy shutting earlier thatn the practice and
also over lunchtimes had been resolved.
DD agreed to look into it further and raise it at our next forum.
SC handed out sweets to promote NHS Health Checks.
9: Date of Next Meeting
Thursday 10th September 2015
Action log
Date
Action
Owner
Deadline
Status
9th June 2015
Decide date of next meeting
JJ/DD
Done
Done
9th June 2015
Ask permission to use Big Life
Centre’s notice board
DD
Ongoing
Ongoing
9th June 2015
Put HCC Volunteer info on NB
DD
Done
Done
9th June 2015
Put new website info on NB
DD
Ongoing
Ongoing
9th June 2015
Speak to Neil about virtual patient
feedback
DD
Ongoing
Ongoing
9th June 2015
Contact Big Life regarding use of
rooms for community projects
DD
Done
Done
9th June 2015
Contact Kelly Rae re :loan laptops
DD
Ongoing
Ongoing
2nd March 2015
Decide date of next meeting
JJ/DD
Done
Done
2nd March 2015
Ask permission to use Big Life
Centre’s notice board
JJ
Ongoing
Ongoing
2nd March 2015
Put photos of staff on notice board
JJ
Ongoing
Ongoing
2nd March 2015
Get HIT timetable and put on notice
board
DD
Done
Done
2nd March 2015
Speak to Pharmacy and see if they
will stay open later on Wednesdays
DD
Ongoing
Ongoing
2nd March 2015
Discuss GP’s using rooms nearer
reception
JJ
Done
Done
2nd March 2015
Send Minutes to patients
DD
Done
Done