Minutes of the Gosberton Patient Participation Group

Committee Meeting June 27th 2024

Attending         Mr Preston Keeling                                     Chairman

                                Mr Adrian Denner                                        Vice Chairman

                                Mr Richard Baker                                         Hon Treasurer

                                Mrs Sue Wayman                                        Hon Secretary

                                Mrs Sarah Cooper                                       Committee

                                Mr Brenton D’Abrio                                     Committee

                                Mrs Sarah Morgan                                      Committee

                                Mrs Eilene Keeling                                      Committee

                                Rev Steve Weatherly-Barton                Committee

                                Mrs Maxine Allen

                                Mrs Dorota Kowynia-Kaczor                 Practice Manager

                                Dr Mohamed Morsy                                   Senior Partner

Apologies        Mrs J. Field, Mrs J. Warman.

The minutes were accepted as read with no matters arising.

Chairman’s Report   Preston had nothing to report so handed over to Adrian to report on the South/ South West PPG meeting held on TEAMS. Adrian reported that the meeting was poorly attended and had very little to report. A discussion ensued were it was reported that many PPGs where barely operating or had ceased to operate due to lack of co-operation from clinicians and practice managers. Preston stated that this was occurring because PPGs had no teeth and lots of surgeries could not see any benefit from having a PPG. Adrian asked Dr Morsy what benefit he felt the practice got from our PPG. He stated that the PPG made it easier to receive feedback from patients and he appreciated the support we gave them with decisions about equipment. He also thanked us for our support with charity within the practice.

Treasurer’s Report   Richard reported that there had been no outgoings since the last meeting. There is £2012 in the account. Maxine asked what we did with the money and it was explained that we supported the Social Prescriber with contributions towards swim therapy and bereavement counselling at the moment.

Secretary’s Report   Sue said she had little to report. Membership stood at 34. The email push had resulted in 8 requests but only one person had actually joined. This led to a discussion. It was suggested that the use of the word participation was possibly off putting, so it was decided to refer to the group as “the patient group” in conversations. Dorota was asked if it would be possible to resend the email. This was agreed.

Input from Surgery   Dr Morsy then went on to inform the meeting that Dorota was leaving as practice manager in August. He was very sorry to see her go and this sentiment was echoed by all at the meeting. Candidates were due to be interviewed in the next two weeks and he asked that Preston, Adrian and possibly Sarah sit in on the interviews to give input on the candidates. This was agreed.

Dr Morsy then said that he was running a large number of extra clinics. This caused concern around the table that he was overstretching himself. To lighten the load the surgery is looking to appoint some new doctors. Owing to the training within the practice of doctors, they were able to cherry pick from those they already had knowledge of.  Dr Oshodini will be joining the practice in August for three days a week and other additions were being considered.

Dorota said that there had been a big uptake in digital consults. 100 places were now available and so far the maximum used was 78 in a day. People can contact the surgery using this method 7am to 11am and there are 2 appointments in the morning and two in the afternoon each day. The surgery is monitoring the system to see where it needs tweaking.

Dorota was then asked the questions which had been raised by a patient. One about ambiguous text messages and one about having to listen to a long message before being told that the system was full and being disconnected. Text messages should only be sent as a reminder of a face-to-face appointment. If it is a telephone consultation the clinician will make three attempts, then leave a message to say they have tried to contact you but failed.

A new telephone system is being installed in July which should help with queue times and long-winded   messages.

These answers were discussed.

July 14th             The stall at the Gosberton Summer Fayre was discussed but owing to problems manning the stall it was decided that we would join with the Beechcroft Practice at the event they had arranged on 19th September instead. In future we will offer to help with the organisation of any further events in partnership with Beechcroft.

It was agreed that the minutes should be put up on the surgery website in the slot marked NEWSLETTER.

The suggestion was made that signs should be put up in the waiting area asking that mobile phones be switched off.

Next Meeting Thursday 29th August 2024 at 10.00am at the Surgery