Patient Participation Group Meeting Minutes – 08/02/24

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PPG Minutes 

Meeting 08/02/24 

Attendees: Alan S, Lesley W, Norman W, Holly C, Lorna E 

Chair: Ruth Helliwell 

Apologies:  Alan H, Pete S, John M, Tina G 

Minutes of Last meeting- Everyone agreed minutes from last meeting 

Social Prescriber’s Update: 

Ruth talked through update since last met with the social prescribers in December 

  • We are doing ongoing support with Veterans in the local area, attempting to ensure all veterans are coded in our systems and work with other agencies to do targeted approaches with them. We recently enjoyed Christmas parties, evening dinners and games and ensured all were financially secure with bills, heating and food throughout the coldest weeks in December and January.  
  • We have distributed household vouchers to those most vulnerable in our community, white good replacements and crafting kits.  
  • Our Tuesday group has now engaged the Health and Wellbeing Coaches into sessions at Vale Road Community Centre. Patients enjoy the benefits of social interactions, personalised support and a chance to try new ideas, health interventions, join in crafts or hear updates from agencies like the benefits teams, different speakers or demonstrations around new initiatives open to patients. Alison, Katie and Kirsty are usually available to meet patients at the group or walk there with them.  
  • The Social Prescribers have updated their training to offer smoking and vaping interventions and link closely with “Your Health Notts”.  
  • A new walk and talk session offers patients a chance to do a short walk from the surgery weekly. Health and wellbeing coaches have been involved in this. Once we know more about timings etc we will let the group/patients know. 
  • Social Prescribers continue to support people with benefit forms, advocacy, blue badges and ideas to stay connected in the local community. Some patients are linked to Disability Notts at Park Rd Resource Centre.  
  • Many of our patients have health, mental health and learning needs which require a personalised support plan, tailored to meet their specific needs.  

Copies of Surgery Info Leaflets: 

Handouts of surgery’s most updated Practice leaflets. These are available in reception at both sites. LE will send attachment in the email 

Last meeting John Marsh had a leaflet that was years out of date, and he was questioning what was different. JM did not have the most up to date one, these have now been printed and are at both sites at the surgery. 

Roof works update: 

Works now complete. Following works that have been hindered by floods and leaks can now take place. 

Work on Practice Manager Office due to start 31/01/24, requires new ceiling/flooring/plastering and fire stopping works. No timeline for completion.  

No outstanding patient facing issues. Lift is also working.  

Roof has 25 years guarantee and any issues NHS property services go direct to the company. 

PCN Patient Survey Results for Oakwood: 

In December the PCN did a mandatory survey via each surgery to gather some information re access to appointments for the capacity and access improvement plan.   

This was sent to all patients that allow practice to send correspondence electronically, these were also made available at reception. Required to obtain 170 responses but we received around 1500 which is good. 

PCN manager hasn’t done the full analysis for the PCN yet, but RH requested the Oakwood responses to share with the PPG. – RH had handouts available and read them out working through the questions and responses- this will be circulated with the minutes. 

I understand we had by far the most responses on PCN (Oakwood required 170, but obtained 1,486), but wont be able to peg ourselves against the other practices until full PCN data is shared.  

Handout of Oakwood responses. 

Actions to support improvement: working to new phone system and Reception recruitment covered in next 2 agenda points. 

Phone System Plan Update (Holly) 

Holly will be taking over from Ruth for the next year with Lorna by her side to assist with PPG meet. 

As part of the 2023/24 GP contract changes, practices are required to procure their telephony solutions only from suppliers on the better purchasing framework once their current telephony contract expires. The surgery has managed to secure some funding from the ICB to support the implementation of a new telephony system. We have chosen to use RPM communications. They currently provide services to over 1200 other GP practices in the UK.  

The phone system is far more advanced than our current supplier MITEL and includes lots of features including 

  • Patient auto-call-back 
  • Scheduled call-backs 
  • Critical-care call-routing 
  • Remote care-worker call routing 
  • Post call patient surveys 
  • Live call monitoring 
  • Call coaching 
  • Call queue buster 
  • Clinical database integration 
  • NS2 
  • Cloud based solution 
  • Call queue position 
  • Estimated wait time 
  • Click 2 Dial 
  • Screen pop 
  • Remote working and apps 
  • Hub integration 
  • Business continuity 
  • Hot desking 
  • Real-time call statistics 
  • Reducing abandoned calls 
  • Multi-site or single site call load routing 
  • Utilise HSCN connectivity 
  • Free calls 
  • Directory dialling 
  • 24/7/365 technical support. 

There are also functionalities to use the call system for monitoring and mentoring where we can listen to staff on the phone to patients.  

The system should make it easier for both patients and staff 

Still in planning process- usually say 8-10 weeks. We are in week 5. The next step is for the company to come on site and set up and plan for training. 

Ever since Ruth started been looking at phone systems have costed up several companies and was previously going to cost £1200.00 per month- current system doesn’t charge us at all. Reason we haven’t done earlier as current provider did say they were going to gain the facilities as above. 

Funding is available but will not cover all- is at a cost to the business, but it will be useful for the patients and staff. 

60 GP surgeries going through the same transition process as it is a contractual requirement. 

Alan asked whether the phone system will reduce the queues in the morning- it was confirmed that he meant the physical queue. RH explained that we are hopeful, and it feels a shame that the queue has become so large, as this should not be the first suggestion when patients say they are struggling to get through on the phones. We are hopeful that the efficiency of the phones reduces the queue. It can be difficult when people in the queue have a pre booked early appointment. 

RH confirmed that the reporting elements of the system will be more details. At the moment our system allows us to see how many people are in the call queue at one time and Holly/Ruth/Lorna have this open all the time. The maximum size of the call queue is 25. The number of people in the queue is not concerning but accessing the information about how long the caller has been waiting is important. A timer can be set for the longest call queue e.g. 5 Mins and if the call wait time exceeds this the call block on the graph goes red. The team then focus solely on the phones once that turns red. In addition to this the new phone system will allow us to see who is answering the calls and who is not which allows us to give personal coaching and feedback to staff if they were not answering their calls- can also run reports to see how many calls staff have answered to allow us to investigate the reasoning behind this. 

Other things we are able to do- when we have a call at the moment that we need to listen to because a concern or complaint has been raised, we currently have to wait 45 minutes to listen to the calls. The new system allows us to listen immediately. Also, patients may have contacted the surgery to request an appointment, and we have not been able to book one and has become rude towards staff- without patient details we cannot trace this. The new system recognises the telephone number and pulls up the patient they are talking to on to our system. This will be a lot more efficient. 

Recruitment Update: 

Since last meeting Samantha and Kerry have started as receptionists, both full time and very good feedback so far.  One started middle of December, the other the beginning of January. Patients responding positively and staff feel efficient. 

Kirstin due to start 3 days a week 19th Feb. 

All of the above will help with efficiency. 

DNA data: 

This data is gathered on a monthly basis. If a patient doesn’t attend an appointment and they don’t let us know in advance it turns green, and the patient receives a message to say that they did not attend. LE send patient a letter to advise that they have been recorded as not attending and that another DNA within 6 months could results in off listing. 

September: 36 hours 

October 48 hours- this is massive when you think a nurse/GP appointment on average is 10 Minutes. We identified that there had been an issue with the MJOG system, and this was identified and resolved and there was a drop in November 

November 30 hours 

December 31 hours 

RH and asked LE that when she is reporting on what hours are recorded look at how many appointments have actually been DNA’d. 

Patients do not need to wait in a call queue to cancel an appointment. 

There are certain appointments that seem to have a higher number of DNA’s. Pre bookable appointments are one as patients maybe no longer need the appointment or they forget. Also Child imms and smears are also high. 

Even if patients let us know last minute that they cannot attend we would try our best to fill these. It is very frustrating when patients are crying out for appointments and people just don’t turn up 

Lorna has been working on DNA letters for patients during phased return to work. Will start populating on Practice Facebook as well as in waiting rooms. 

There is a process when patients Do Not Attend 

Today is Ruth’s last day before she goes on maternity leave 

Lorna is back on site and is taking the meeting minutes today 

Holly is taking over from Ruth for the next 12 months  

Thank you to the PPG from Ruth for their support over the last 3 years. 

Next Meeting date Thursday 11th April @ 13:00 

AOB