Patient Participation Group (PPG)

About the Patient Participation Group

Patients are occasionally contacted by email and invited to take part in various activities e.g. Patient Surveys. If you would like to sign up, you can either complete our online registration form, or you can fill in a request form available from the front desk in Reception.

Become a PPG member

Whilst feedback from all surveys including the National Surveys, has always been very positive, we do not take our patient’s good wishes and support lightly. We are very keen to solicit feedback from our patients in as many forms as we can. A phone call or a word at the front desk is just as welcome!

We also hold regular Patient Participation Group (PPG) meetings to which all patients are invited.

If you would like to attend, please let reception know or just come along on the night. Everyone is welcome.

Latest Patient Participation Group Meeting Minutes

• Date: Tuesday 21st May 2024
• Time: 6:30pm
• At: Eastfield House Surgery

Present

• Mark Galliver, GP Partner
• Liz Pope, Practice Manager
• Tania Coker-Davies, Operations Manager
• Kathy Sandell, Social Prescriber
• 12 x patients attended.

Welcome and introductions

Liz Pope thanked everyone for coming, it was lovely to see some familiar faces and new ones too.

Staff update

It has proven difficult to recruit a diabetic specialist nurse. Judith, our Practice Matron who specialises in Diabetes, will be continuing looking after our diabetic patient annual reviews for the time being. We are also training our Advanced Practitioner, Sam and our Pharmacist Sian who will work together with Dr Featherstone to provide support for our diabetic patients. 

We have successfully recruited two nurses with secondary care experience, wanting to progress their careers into primary care. Hayley Coppin joined our nurses team a couple of weeks ago and has started her training, being shadowed by our existing nurses. Her first speciality will be Cervical Cancer Smear sample taking.

Lauren Buttler will soon be joining our nursing Team as well and like Hayley, she has plenty of experience in secondary care but will be trained in primary care specialities such as childhood immunisations, COPD, Asthma, etc. 

Dr Laura Singer has decided to leave us to join an established teaching practice, where she will be able to continue to develop her skills with teaching students. She will be still with us in a locum basis so you probably will see her from time to time. 

Dr Arek Hassy will be joining us at the beginning of July. He is an experienced GP who has a special interest in Mental Health. 

Anima 

From Eastfield House perspective the Anima GP appointment system is working well. All requests are being triaged by a GP and patients are being seen by the right clinician within the appropriate timeframe. GPs are seeing their own patients which aids with continuity of care. 

We now have a monthly meeting with Anima’s development Team to make sure we are working together making the necessary changes to improve patient experience. Patients can also feedback directly through their account (settings: feedback).

We now have 11,400 out of 15300 patients now registered with an Anima account.

Looking at the data from our telephone providers we can see a reduction in the volume of telephone calls from last year to this year where calls have decreased significantly in volume, particularly on Monday morning. This is due to patients who have online access being able to use Anima, freeing up the telephone lines for those who do not.

New Premises

The planning application for the new premises has been submitted to West Berkshire Planning. Applications usually take up to 12 weeks before a decision is made. However, West Berkshire Planning are notoriously slow when dealing with applications and we have been told that it could be up to 6 months before a planning decision is made. 

When planning has been approved, Eastfield House will submit a Business Case to our Integrated Care Board (ICB) for funding of rent. Our ICB have informed us that we will be competing for funding with other surgeries in Berkshire, Oxford and Buckinghamshire, but we are seen as a priority.  Greenham Trust have been very supportive, reiterating that they are not in the market to make profit like commercial companies, they are a charity who reinvest any profits made, back into the community. 

Greenham Trust will be the developer of the new premises. If the Business Case is approved, Greenham Trust anticipate 18 months to construct the new premises. 

A patient engagement event was held at St John’s Church Hall so that patients could come and meet our architects and see the displayed plans and drawings for the new premises. Thank you to all the PPG members who attended the event. We had in excess of 40 people attending in the evening and it was a success. 

During the evening, we conducted a survey where we asked the opinion of all who attended regarding the new building and access. The same survey is still taking place at our surgery and all feedback submitted will be relayed to our architects to take into consideration when the final design of the build is drawn. 

Currently the plans and drawings are being displayed in our surgery’s waiting room for all other patients who haven’t had the opportunity to join us in the engagement evening see and complete the survey.

Kathy Sandell – Life in a day of a social Prescriber

Kathy Sandell spoke about what a social prescriber can offer patients and what type of services and patients she gets to help throughout the day. She also explained how the referral process works and how long it will normally take for each referral. She also explained about all the different services and charities in the area that she liaises with on a daily basis and where she refers patients to. 

Healthwatch – Simon Shaw

Simon Shaw Senior Engagement Officer for the Healthwatch reading will be attending our next PPG meeting on 10th September. He will be explaining a little bit about the Healthwatch and what they can offer and do for patients. 

NHS App / Anima/ IT Support – Rav Gopal, Digital Services Officer - Newbury Library

Just a reminder to patients that Rav Gopel, a volunteer at Newbury library, is offering support to our patients, with installing and navigating the NHS App for our patients. Posters are displayed in the surgery with about his service and he can be contacted online here to arrange a 30 to 60 minute 1:1 appointment.

Details are also displayed on our Facebook page for future reference. 

West Berkshire Patient Panel Meetings

Jill T has decided to step down of the Patient Panel as an Eastfield PPG representative. Tim Benson has agreed to replace Jill in these meetings. His details will be forwarded to the PPWB chair and he will be reporting back to us when he attends the meetings.

Patient Questions and Suggestions

Are there any other local practices using Anima?

Yes. Budwood Surgery in Thatcham. Other local GP surgeries are using different models.  

What kind of assistance is available for patients finding hard to use Anima?

Receptionists can always assist to put requests through for anyone who feels, for whatever reason, that they are unable to do so themselves. There are benefits to using the system where access to the technology exists: - earlier access in the morning, no need to discuss problem with the Reception Team and GP can contact the patient directly through Anima if they need clarification or further information on any aspect of their request. If a routine invitation is sent to an account holder, they can choose the time, date, and format of the appointment within the offered date range.

We also have a privacy room adjacent to reception which can be used if a patient walks in to the surgery and would like to make the request in person in a private room. The receptionists can also assist with this. 

For those patients who need a paper form we have printed copies in reception and our receptionists can provide patients with the forms and hand over to the GP triaging on the day and they will triage this as al the other calls. These forms will be dealt with the same form of urgency as the requests submitted online. 

Pharmacy First

Pharmacies can now examine and treat (prescribe abx where appropriate) a specific range of minor illnesses.

• Acute Otitis Media from 1-17 years old
• Impetigo from 1 year and over
• Infected insect bites from 1 year and over
• Shingles from 18 years and over
• Sinusitis from 12 years and over
• Sore throat from 5 years and over
• Uncomplicated UTI Women from 16-64 years

Pharmacists have been trained to diagnose and treat/prescribe appropriately for these conditions. Please always consider asking your pharmacist about over the counter treatment for other minor conditions before contacting your GP. 

Date of Next Meeting

• Tuesday 10th September 2024 at 6:30pm.