MINUTES OF THE LONGTON MEDICAL CENTRE PATIENT
PARTICIPATION GROUP
Wednesday 9th December, 2015
Attendees:
Patient Representatives: Mala Dawson, Linda Hughes, Linda Williams and Tracy
Woods
Staff Representatives: Lisa Roberts, Co-Chair and Practice Manager
Apologies:
Wendy Burton and Dorothy Corkill
1. Welcome
Linda Williams, Co-Chair, welcomed the Patient Representatives to the meeting.
2. Approval of the Minutes
The Minutes of the meeting held on 12th August, 2015 were approved.
3. Matters Arising
Practice Premises Update:
It was agreed that no further action could and/or would be taken in this regard
without the benefit of hierarchical support.
Family and Friends Test:
The situation is unchanged in that it is unfortunate that responses have been
extremely limited to date despite The Test also being made available on the Surgery
website as follows:
Friends & Family Test
How likely are you to recommend our GP practice to friends and family if they needed similar care or
treatment?
o
o
o
o
o
o
Extremely Likely
Likely
Neither Likely nor Unlikely
Unlikely
Extremely Unlikely
Don't Know
Can you tell us why you gave that response?
It was agreed that this would be revamped into a more attractive format to entice
more patients to participate, possibly including a family graphic with more
explanation. For example:
The Family and Friends Test is a short
easy to understand questionnaire.
When
patients
receive
care
or
treatment at the surgery they will be
given the opportunity to state whether
or not they would recommend Longton
Lane Surgery to family or friends if
they needed similar care or treatment.
Therefore, we would like you to think
of your most recent experience at this
surgery.
Action: Lisa Roberts/Mala Dawson.
The Test would then be promoted within the surgery via posters and ad hoc
campaigns as well as highlighted on prescriptions.
Staff Training:
Whilst it was appreciated that Healthwatch had recommended that patients be kept
informed of staff training specifically to improve the service as well as to give some
credibility to the practice closing at certain times for staff development it was felt, at
this juncture, the quotation from the CQC Report would suffice i.e. “Staff had
received training appropriate to their roles and any further training needs had been
identified and training planned to meet these needs.” It should be noted that the
CQC have actually organized a Customer Service Face-to-Face Training Session at
Longton Lane during January 2016.
4. Care Quality Commission 19 Page Report – 7th October, 2015
The
CQC
report
(which
can
be
found
via
the
following
link:
http://www.cqc.org.uk/search/services/doctorsgps/longton%20medical%20centre?location=&latitude=&longitude=&sort
=default&la=&distance=15&mode=html) describes their judgement of the
quality of care at Longton Medical Centre. It was based on a combination of what
was found when inspected, information from their ongoing monitoring of Practice
data and information given from the Practice, Patients, the Public and other
organisations. Overall the Practice was rated as “GOOD”.
The key findings were as follows:








There were systems in place to mitigate safety risks including analysing
significant events and
safeguarding.
The practice whilst small and limited for space was clean and tidy. There was
a small step and manual doors on entering the building with limited
availability for disabled car parking. The practice was in need of a quality
impact assessment as per the Equality Act 2010 to help identify actions
needing to be taken to improve disabled facilities at the practice. The clinical staff proactively sought to educate patients to improve their
lifestyles by regularly inviting patients for health assessments. Patients spoke highly about the practice and the whole staff team. They said
they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were
involved in their care and decisions about their treatment. Patients said they
found it easy to make appointments and were seen in good time and didn’t
wait long at appointments.
The practice has a patient participation group (PPG) who met three times a
year and had various plans to develop their role in working with the practice
staff. Information about services and how to complain was available and easy
to understand.
There was a clear leadership structure with delegated duties distributed
amongst the team and staff felt supported by management. The staff worked
well together as a team.
Quality and performance were monitored.
However there were areas of practice where the provider should make
improvements.
Action the provider SHOULD take to improve:

Carry out a quality impact assessment as per the Equality Act 2010 to help
identify actions needing to be taken to improve disabled facilities at the
practice.
There was some discuss as to the interpretation of the action required by the
provider.
Tracy Woods, with her particular and appropriate professional
qualifications and knowledge, agreed to research this on behalf of the Practice and
report back to The Practice Manager in an appropriate timeframe.
Action: Tracy Woods.
5.
Healthwatch Report
The Practice Manager circulated at the meeting the Healthwatch St. Helens Report
carried out on 28th October 2015. The purpose of their visit was to provide a
community perspective and identify areas for improvement; to engage with staff and
patients and to identify good working practice. The following is a summary findings:
At the time of the visit the practice appeared to be running smoothly with a relaxed
and welcoming atmosphere, an effective appointment system and committed staff.
The report concluded that: “The visiting team felt that the practice is operating at a
high level and its appointment system should be considered a model of good practice
and left with a very positive impression of the practice.”
The Visiting Team recommended that promotional material should consider patients
with visual impairments or dyslexia and that the “Text-to-Cancel” facility be
promoted.
6.
Managing Local NHS Pressures during Winter and a Financially
Challenging Time Seminar Feedback
The Practice Manager circulated at the meeting a narrative from a recent advert in
The Star in this regard.
Contained therein was the fact that funding from central government does not take
into account the additional health and social care needs of older people and this can
cause pressure in the NHS system.
The plan to “Pause (a 6 week delay) on non-urgent referrals” is to be trialled with
immediate effect until after 29th February 2016. Any patient not wishing to wait will
be referred as normal and the decision to pause will only be made with consent from
the patient.
Further information on the plan can be found on the following link:
www.sthelensccg.nhs.uk
7. Suggested Topics of Interest Nominations
Alison Brook, Engagement and Involvement Manager, St. Helens Clinical
Commissioning Group (CCG) has, in order to ensure that they are providing the level
of engagement required, suggested future topics of interest. These had been
previously circulated to PPG Members on 19th November 2015.
Bearing in mind that we meet three times a year (and these have been planned for
13th April; 17th August and 7th December 2016) it was agreed that only three
suggestions would be proposed as follows:

Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT). What is IAPT and what
is it all about? The Commissioner will overview the new service, how this will
help St. Helens and how PPG’s can help.

Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) Refresh by the Public Health
Assistant Director and

NHS Quality according to The Quality Programme Manager.
mean in the NHS and how it is commissioned?
What does this
Lisa Roberts to liaise with Alison Brook in order to arrange the presentations to
coincide with our 2016 meeting dates.
Action: Lisa Roberts
8. Extended Opening Times
The Surgery opening times are currently as follows:
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Weekend
08:30-18:00
08:30-18:00
08:30-16:45
08:30-18:00
08:30-18:00
closed
With effect from January onwards these will change to:
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Weekend
08:30-18:30
08:30-18:30
08:30-16:45
08:30-18:30
08:30-18:30
closed
9. Any Other Business
Information on Flu Vaccination Timetable
For various reasons the annual Flu Vaccination Timetable did not adhere to that of
previous years. Unfortunately this was not widely publicized.
The PPG felt that mechanisms to generate electronic generic communications to
patient’s e-mail addresses should be researched and costed in order to quickly and
efficiently promote all aspects of surgery information and updates. Similarly as with
The Family and Friends Test (referred to at Matters Arising above) any information
and updates should be promoted within the surgery via posters as well as highlighted
on prescriptions.
10. Dates for 2016 Meetings
The dates of the 2016 meeting were agreed as follows:
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

Wednesday 13th April, 2016 – 1315 hours
Wednesday 17th August, 2016 – 1315 hours
Wednesday 7th December, 2016 – 1315 hours
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