Patient Participation Group

Attendees:

• Jonathan Banting – Chair
• Dr Thaven Chetty
• Sarah Parren - Hub Manager
• Jeanette Teague - Secretary
• Peter Lane
• Helen Banting
• David Denton
• Colin Eckloff
• Helen Lattaway – Lakeside Digital & Transformation Manager (Item 1 only)

Apologies:

• Clare Hall

Digital & Transformation Manager role

Helen explained about her new role within the PCN (Primary Care Network) which consists of 3 Lakeside practices in St Neots (Dumbelton, Eaton Socon, Cedar House), St Neots Health Centre (walk-in centre) and Great Staughton.

One of Helen’s objectives will be to promote the use of e-health kiosks which are installed in Eaton Socon and Cedar House. These can be used by patients with no booking necessary to check and record their health (blood pressure, height, weight and other personal information). This is saved on Systmone to be viewed by practitioners at future face to face appointments. There will be improved signage in surgery and information on Lakeside website, newsletter and Facebook. The PPG will also promote on its Facebook Group.

Helen has established links with St Neots Integrated Neighbourhood and she meets regularly with all Practice Managers in the PCN as well as Lakeside staff in Corby. She regularly visits all five surgeries in the PCN.

There are plans in operation to set up a new Outreach Pain clinic in Dumbelton, and she is working with the Alzheimers Society in trying to organise an Alzheimers run clinic at Eaton Socon. The priority areas for 2025 agreed between the PCN and Integrated Neighbourhood team are: Mental Health and Learning Disabilities, Women's Health and Prevention.

Helen left the meeting at 6pm. We were then joined by Dr Chetty and Sarah Parren for the main meeting.

Apologies for absence, resignation and new member

Sue Johnson recently resigned from the group and Jonathan has written to her to thank her for her contribution.

Colin Eckloff has joined the group for his first meeting.

PPG Annual General Meeting

PPG membership – All members are happy to continue in the group for 2025, with Jonathan as Chair, Helen as Treasurer and Jeanette as Secretary.

Lakeside St Neots PPG Chair’s Report - October 2023 to January 2025

This report is covering the period from when the PPG activities resumed after the Covid suspension.

The PPG restarted in November 2023 when all of the 9 people who had contacted the practice to register an interest in the PPG got together. The PPG committee has had an internal meeting most months since then and has also seen a turnover in members with some leaving / moving away and others joining - currently there are 7 committee members.

PPG documents (minutes, actions, useful information etc) are kept on a dedicated PPG Google account. Items have also been shared in the Facebook group.

The first of 5 formal meetings during 2024 with the practice happened in January and these have usually taken place every 2 months.

During these meetings a wide variety of topics have been covered:

• Appointment availability
• Clarity of messages from practice (text reminders, test results …)
• Feedback on Anima
• PPG promotion via Lakeside Website and physical noticeboards
• Comments on old and new Lakeside websites
• Statistics on Appointments including DNA (Did Not Attend)
• Quarterly online meetings with Lakeside and the chairs of other Lakeside PPGs
• Meetings organised by Cambridgeshire Healthwatch (who are planning 4 PPG meetings in 2024 for PPGs in this area - South Cambs)
• A meeting with the local MP (before the July 2024 election)

In October 2024 the PPG launched a Facebook group which attracted 50 members. The feedback from these members formed a large part of the topics raised in the November meeting.

A repeat publicity campaign earlier this month in other local Facebook group along with a graph showing availability of same day appointments attracted another 120 people to join the Facebook group.

It is hoped that this larger and more diverse membership will help with identifying issues, surveys and feedback and some may be interested in joining the PPG committee

The PPG has now recovered access to the old PPG funds. See Treasurers report

The PPG recognises that there has been positive changes in respect of the text messages, the website and appointments. The most recent issues arising from the Facebook group show that communication could still be clearer and this echoes the “Patient Journey” theme we identified in the middle of last year. As chair I would like to thank all of the committee members (past and present) for the time and energy they have put into the PPG and to the Lakeside ST Neots practice staff who have engaged positively with us

Treasurer’s Report - January 2025

The previous PPG had a bank account which had gone dormant during Covid A new account had to be created and the funds transferred This was finally achieved on 4th December

The PPG balance stood at £1523.58 on the day of opening [ 4th December ]

The bank has now advised the process for making payments from the account (requiring 2 of the approved signatories)

In addition we understand that the practice has a paying in book and a chequebook is being issued by the bank

There is £25 income (Sept 2024 figure) from book sales at Dumbelton waiting to be paid in

No expenditure has been made

Q & A

Questions were sent in advance to the practice:

Telephone Appointments.

We still see many people concerned about how telephone appointments are carried out and the difficulty of being available for many hours

• How many times will the medical staff ring for an appointment?
• What time will be left between attempts?
• How close to the appointment time can a patient request that a telephone appointment is held as face to face?

Answer: Practitioners will call twice leaving a gap of 15-60 minutes. After which the appointment will be logged as DNA. If a patient is given a phone appointment, they can request to be seen face to face. If they attend at the surgery they will usually be seen face to face although there may be a wait and this may not be possible if the practitioner is working remotely. If patients find telephone appointments difficult due to work or family commitments, they can request face to face or extended access ie evening or Saturday appointments.

Text messages

• We have suggested some improvements in messages to make it clearer the time range for a telephone appt - are these going to be implemented?
• We also suggest that adding the day of the week as well as the date of the appointment could help reduce missed appointments
• Can an appointment reminder be sent on the day of the appointment
• Some people find out of the blue messages asking patient to make an appointment, blood test or take BP readings worrying. There is often no more information in the patient summary record as what triggered the request and the admin team are often unable to say why the patient has been sent the message. Can there be a clear reason stated in the patient record (even if it cannot be sent in the text message)

Answer: Text messages are pre-automated and it’s not possible for practice staff to customise (eg to add day of week). Text reminders are sent the day before appointment. All patients are required to have their blood pressure taken every 5 years therefore standard bulk texts are sent as reminders. Dr Chetty has taken on board patient feedback.

Regular appointments

• What can be done for patients who need a regular nurse appointment (e.g. for injection) with a narrow window - i.e. within a couple of days?

Answer: Appointments can be booked 2-4 weeks in advance and practitioner can book the next appointment

Anima

• Please can the practice confirm the number of patients registered for Anima We have heard of another Lakeside practice that is moving to “Total Triage” - is this something that could be coming to St Neots and how does it work?

Answer:  Currently 8,300 patients (approx 40%) are registered for Anima. The system is now available all day until the maximum daily number is reached – 70 on Monday and 65 other days. Total Triage is when a practitioner triages every request. This may be difficult to roll out in St Neots because of the three sites. It is still being considered

Repeat prescription requests via the form on new website

One patient found that when using the form (due to issue with the NHS App)  for 2 items, only 1 was prescribed. Is there any general issue with the form?

Answer: Sarah was unaware of the prescription request form on Lakeside website. It is advisable to use Systemonline or NHS app to order repeats.

Use of the 3 surgery premises

Please could we have a very rough idea of % of GP, other medical staff and clinic appointments that are held at Eaton Socon, Cedar House and Dumbelton.

Answer: There is usually 1 GP and a nurse at Dumbelton and at least 2 at the other two but this is variable depending on clinics, registrars etc. Due to patient feedback, more blood test appointments are now available at Cedar House.

Did Not Attend

• Some improvement in number in November (possibly missed flu jabs in October counted as DNA?)
• Does practice follow up with patients who missed appt to see what the reasons are?

Answer: Yes, high numbers in October were missed vaccinations. The practice doesn’t routinely follow up on missed appointments, patients are expected to take responsibility for their own health needs. However if the patient is known to be frail or at risk, then the practitioner will follow up. If patients do not attend for regular reviews for long term conditions, medication may be reduced or ceased.

Daily statistics

• On when bookable / Anima appointments have all gone ?

Answer: Sarah distributed November appointment statistics and these will be posted on Lakeside and PPG Facebook. During November there was an average of 5 minutes waiting time for incoming phone calls (average across all open hours) Anima does not provide statistics on when all appointments have gone

Research

• Healthwatch gave PPGs a presentation on research coordinated by NIHR - does this practice take part in research projects (We have seen there is a Lakeside level research team based in Corby)

Answer: The practice does take part in research and has recently contacted patients regarding a norovirus trial. PPG Funds Now we have access to the PPG funds, can you give us some ideas of items that could be purchased by PPG (including benefit for patients and cost) Answer: As discussed previously, possibly play equipment for small children; Comfortable chairs for waiting area; Dermatoscope, BP monitors. Dr Chetty to discuss with practice staff and feedback to PPG. Dr Chetty agreed that it would be a good idea to have bookshelves in all 3 surgeries for sale of donated books (including childrens) and to display useful health publications

RSV Clinics

• Are more planned for eligible patients who didn’t get appointments in the Autumn?

Answer: All eligible patients between ages 75-79 have now been contacted and offered appointments (usually on Wednesdays). The rollout will continue throughout the year (as patients reach 75) Covid vaccinations will be offered to those eligible in the spring.

Next Meeting

Monday 17 March, 6.00pm in the Library at Eaton Socon – Sarah to book room