Patient Participation Group (PPG)

• Mark Galliver, GP Partner
• Liz Pope, Practice Manager
• Andrea Allan, Assistant Practice Manager
• Kathy Sandell, Social Prescriber
• Teresa Butler, Senior Receptionist
• 13 x patients attended.

Liz Pope thanked everyone for coming, it was lovely to see some familiar faces and new ones too. She introduced the staff members in attendance to the PPG members.

We have not had any changes in staff since our last meeting however, our Lead Nurse, Hollie gave birth to a baby girl on Saturday. All is well and she is enjoying her maternity leave.

The progress on planning permission for the new premises seems to have ground to a halt. Liz has emailed West Berkshire Planners, West Berkshire Health Scrutiny Committee and our MP for assistance but they are not able to advise or assist us to move things forward.

The PPG members discussed whether they could show their support by writing to the Lead Planning Officer. It was suggested that we provide a template via our website that could be completed by patients. A couple of PPG members volunteered to approach councillors that they know for assistance. PPG members all agreed that it was taking far too long and in the meantime, the West Berks Planner are still approving plans for dwellings within the practice boundary, which will increase the practice list size of patients further. Liz said she would draft a letter for the members to consider using in support of the planning application.

Planning Application No.is 24/00037/FULMAJ. Patients may also like to consider submitting a comment via the West Berkshire Council Planning Application portal: 24/00037/FULMAJ | Erection of Primary Care Centre with associated works

Neighbourhood working is a new restructuring term that has come about due to the NHS 10 year plan. The Government want to create smaller, local health hubs to support neighbourhoods which will ease the pressure on hospitals. We currently work in a Primary Care Network with Downland Practice and Strawberry Hill but there is a suggestion that we work more closely under the Neighbourhood scheme with Falkland Surgery and Strawberry Hill with the rural practices working more closely together. This is still at the discussion stage. Liz will update the PPG members when she knows more definite changes and how this may impact the surgery.

The Spring programme will start from 13.04.26-30.06.26

The eligibility will be as before 75 years and over

Residents in elderly care home

Patients 6 months and over who are immunocompromised and not as before those who have a long term condition.

The current programme is for patients turning 75 yrs with catch up for those aged 75+ to 80 yrs and pregnant women 28 weeks onwards.

From 1 April 2026 to include pts aged 80 years and over and all residents of care homes for older adults.

This was discussed at the last meeting but to reiterate that we are now open from 7:30-18:30 Monday-Friday as per compliance with the ICB changes to GP contracts.

Simon Shaw Senior Engagement Officer for the Healthwatch is no longer working for them and sadly will not be attending our PPG meetings any longer.

There is a probability that Healthwatch itself will dismantle as an organisation in due course too.

Kathy shared the details of the role of Social Prescriber and how she can be accessed.

26th March 2026 is Social Prescriber Day, whereby patients can come and ask more questions to broaden their understanding and ways to access the services available to them. She explained that patients who need signposting to support groups in the community could ask via the website to speak to Kathy for further information. She asked that if they did engage with this service that she would need to know a little about their concerns to prepare information to help support their needs.

Tim explained that he attends the patient panel West Berkshire but there are no new updates or changes to notify our PPG members with.

Dr Mark Galliver gave an engaging, detailed and frank talk about the dynamic and structured elements of his working day.

This included the early arrival to prepare for the day and to get ahead of his daily administrative tasks and the actions around those for example, viewing blood test results, medication requests, letters from hospitals and patients, and any action needed as a result i.e further appointments, reviews or referrals.

Morning clinics starts at 8.30 am with a mix of routine and urgent telephone 10 minute appointments. 70% of appointments are face to face. The clinic finishes at 11.30 am and time is then spent on the medical administrative tasks.

The practice meets at 12.30 daily for huddle time which gives clinicians an opportunity to discuss any usual cases with colleagues for advice and opinion. There is also time to catch up socially.

Lunchtime meetings are held each week which vary between Partner meetings to discuss aspects of the business, Palliative care meetings, Clinical Governance Meetings, Safeguarding and MDTs.

Afternoon surgery starts at 2.30 pm with a similar mix of appointments to the morning session and associated admin. He usually leaves work after 6.30 pm.

To manage his own patient list, GPs log into their computers on their days off to reduce the administrative aspects and to stay on top of their work.

We operate a GP triage system at Eastfield House which is allocated to the oncall GP. Mark works as a 75% GP partner and typically he may be oncall 4/5 times per month. The oncall sessions involve reviewing all requests that come in via Anima and allocated patients with most appropriate clinician at the relevant time. Patient choice is taken into consideration but it may not always be possible to action this.

One of the patients asked about the levels of our DNA appointments, and how many appointments are wasted due to patients not turning up. Liz explained that it was mostly Nurses appointments that were affected by this and that most GP appointments were kept.