Meeting Minutes April 2023

Meeting Date: 20th April 2023
Time: 7:00pm Heysham Primary Care Centre

Chair: Chris Greenwood.

Minutes taken by: Yvonne Barrett.

Introduction of New Members 

Two new members, however they could not attend the meeting tonight. Hopefully, they will attend a future meeting.

Chris asked all to introduce themselves and welcomed everyone to the meeting.

CM asked all about changing the day of some of the meetings as some members are unable to attend Thursdays, and Wednesday was suggested as an option.  

Conflicts of Interest

None.

Minutes of the Previous Meeting

Read and Agreed.

Actions from the Previous Meeting

• Digital access - HF shared some data on phone STATS.  Improvement on % answered.  Call times have improved as templates have been changed, wrap up time now removed. Mixture of ages used digital access, not yet advertised but we are still getting many patients using it who have found it on the website.  We have also used other services, e.g winter pressure service, community pharmacy referral service, Push Dr - Action completed
• Mapping for DPC/nurse appointments - Discuss at next meeting - Action ongoing
• Online booking appointment - HM discussed with AW - Action completed
• Telephone wait times - As per STATs results discussed - Action completed
• PVG info – Chris has spoken to CM about arranging for the PVG minutes to be added to the website.   
• PVG member’s email addresses – Consent form has been created and circulated to the group members, some completed forms have been returned – Action completed 

Practice Update (to include cytology report) 

Cytology stats were shared with the group:

• Age 25 to 49; smear done in last 3.5 years – 86%
• Age 50 to 64; smear done in last 5.5 years – 79%

Results have room for improvement but are better than they were. Target is 90%.

PVG member suggested whether an alert could be added to a patient’s records as a reminder, however it was confirmed that pop up alerts are already in place for this in emis.  

CM talked of a BMG Practice Nurse who recently gave a talk to Jo’s Trust who are planning on supporting BMG to help increase uptake through social media.

It was noted that the population we are not hitting is a difficult target group and we are working hard to better this.  

Dr VW gave an update on the practice.  We have recruited 3 new GP Partners since Christmas, one coming in June, one this week and another a couple of months ago.  

We continue trying to recruit Patient Advisors, and have recently had 10 new starters who have completed their training schedule and are now on the desks.  

Practice Mental Health Team is expanding, we now have a Children’s Mental Health Nurse who is due to start soon and we have one Mental Health Nurse returning from maternity leave.

We are expanding the ARRS roles further. These roles are in addition to doctors and also provide holistic care for the patients.    

We have 3 dietitians who work closely with the diabetic team.  

Video group consultations have been trialled with the dietitian, two of these have been held so far which have worked well with no technical issues.  The last video group consult saw 9 patients. 

Introduction of the Bay ICC

Cancelled

Data Presentation

AW shared a Benchmarking presentation with the group.    A discussion took place following this which is as follows:

It was noted that we cannot refer to Barrow as a comparison, as Barrow is made up of lots of different practices.

Recruitment is an issue, however it was noted that BMG have retained many trainee doctors.

It was highlighted that if comparisons on recruiting and retaining doctors is being made to Barrow, then we need to take into account that Barrow is a cheaper area to live, is more remote, therefore less opportunity for career development/movement.  

PVG member asked how the clinicians work between themselves? 

Dr VW explained that we have micro teams to help with continuity of care.  Ongoing work is being done on this.

The practice recognised that continuity of care has suffered therefore the micro teams were set up, and we hope to do more with the micro teams over time.  

Pre-bookable appointments are still available.    

Dr MA explained that we work on three systems – 

• acute and urgent care
• visiting team 
• routine care   

The visiting team triage around 60- 80 patients a day routinely, and on a really busy day it can be around 130.   The question was raised as to whether these are being counted in the statistics as an appointment.   

He expressed that many GPs carry out work that is not recorded as an appointment.

Dr MA gave a brief overview of his normal day and informed the group that the clinicians are working to their max.  

Chris read out some statistics, 9500 GP appointments over the month October 22 and in addition ACPs/telephone slots at 1700.  This data doesn’t account for extended access or Push Dr.  

In summary, we know we can do better and are striving to do this, however recent comments on facebook are far more positive than they have been in the past. This is a positive sign and shows that patients are becoming more understanding to the development and improvement work that continues within BMG. 

It was acknowledged that patient satisfaction needs to improve and work is ongoing regarding this.  

Dr MA briefly explained the reason for the merger of practices to become BMG, and how this merger protected the existence of the practices of Westgate and York Bridge.

CF thanked AW on his presentation and expressed what she has taken away from this is that she can see and appreciate the hard work that is being done within the practice to improve things. Communication has improved, the practice is listening and wants things to get better, however she understands this takes time.  She feels the message needs to get out there promoting that we are all working together for improvement. 

Seagull café Presentation

Chris gave a brief overview of the café and the inclusion it provides for people, often those who are feeling lonely and isolated. He talked of how they work alongside the Care Coordinators.  

Chris will share a further presentation on this with the group at a further meeting to allow for a fuller discussion.

Views on introducing the Patient Voice to the BMG population

Chris asked the group if a small amount of members would be happy to come along to one of the sites to talk to the patients to tell them about the Patient Voice Group and what we do. He expressed that he would like the patients to see the PVG group as their voice. He is hoping to arrange this before the July meeting so feedback can be discussed at that meeting.

• Action - PVG members email Yv B if they are interested in attending a site to talk about the PVG to patients 

Presentation of BMG Facebook

CM explained that she manages the Facebook page with Chris.  She talked of a post that she recently added on prostate cancer containing an inspirational story. The post reached over 10,000 people and received many positive comments.  

Another Facebook post regarding cervical screening reached over one million views.

Chris expressed that the Facebook page is a professional positive page.  

CM asked the group if they had any inspirational stories they would like to share for her to post on Facebook, or if they had any ideas of subjects to promote. She expressed that real-life stories seem to work best. 

PVG members are to contact CM if they have anything they would like to share or suggest. 

CM shared an informative image, she feels this best describes the many tasks that go on behind the scenes in general practice.

AOB

Paramedics doing visits

PVG member asked the question whether we have paramedics doing visits, HF confirmed that BMG has three paramedics in our visiting team and this works well.

GPs often do hybrid consultations with the paramedics whilst they are with the patient on a visit.

It was noted that we are our own PCN and this brings many advantages, we can refer internally to various specialities inhouse.  

Viscon Unit

CM informed the group of the viscon unit that was used today and how it allows members who can’t personally attend the meeting to join remotely.    

Listening Service

CM informed the group of the Listening Service which is available. They offer a call back service.  
Recruitment for this is done via the website or practice screens. 

Covid Info

CM confirmed covid info is on the BMG website.    

Date of the next meeting

Chris thanked everyone for coming to the meeting. A brief discussion took place around the change of day for the next meeting and a date was agreed.  

Wednesday 12th July 2023 – (HPCC) – 7pm.

This meeting will be face-to-face and will also allow members who cannot attend to join remotely.

Rules of the meeting/purpose of the Chair

• Read agenda and papers in advance of the meeting and arrive prepared.
• All questions to be through the chair and only one person to speak at a time.
• Stick to the items on the agenda 
• Respect the role of the Chair and allow the Chair to undertake the role to the fullest extent.
• For all decisions Chair to invite everyone present to give opinion without interruptions.
• Vote on all decisions and those members not present must inform the Chair of their voting decisions in advance of the meeting.
• Declare conflicts of interests.