May 18, 2023

Minutes

Pond Tail Surgery PPG

Minutes of meeting

Meeting Thursday 18th May 2023 @ 7pm, Lindley Road Community Centre:

 

1.    Welcome: Alban Brindle welcomed all to the tenth PPG meeting

2.    Apologies & Introductions – Apologies for absence received from Jackie Clark, Alan White. Maddie Tomkins was not present. Chantelle Freeman has now left the group, as her family has moved out of Godstone. Welcome to new member Suzana Zizek and pharmacists Ifesi Amene and Ike Nze.  

3.    Election of Chairman & Vice-Chairman – AB stated that he would not be standing for re-election as chairman in the new year.   

4.    PPG Newsletter– The first draft of the next newsletter was presented to the committee. Several changes were suggested, including changes to the prescription section, the new medical centre section and the Booking an Appointment section. The addition of a zero tolerance section was suggested. Abuse at the Surgery was discussed, and this is a regular occurrence, both in person and on the telephone. It was noted that warning letters are sent out to patients and this normally has a beneficial effect.

5.    Newsletter distribution – AB has sent a request for distribution of the Newsletter through the Godstone Club and is awaiting a response.

6.    Recruiting remaining members – At the last meeting, Maddie volunteered to assist in a recruitment drive at the Oxted County, with assistance from Candy, and Candy stated she would follow this up. Fran stated that she has a contact who works extensively in the traveller community, so she will contact this person for suggestions for new members from this community. At the last meeting, Jenny stated that she would organise a text message campaign to all patients between 18 and 25 years of age.

7.    Health Champions Initiative: Dr. Jaffer provided an update on this initiative. Background meetings had taken place, and there was no support from East Surrey Rural Transport Partnership and from the existing Health Champions programme in Smallfield. The first meeting will take place on June 8th at the White Hart Barn starting at 7.30pm, and tea and coffee will be available. It is hoped that from this first meeting, the community will support the programme and people may come forward with their ideas for forming groups. 

8.    Update from the Surgery: – Fran ran through the current situation with regard to clinical staff. This now consists of 5 permanent GP’s, 2 Advanced Nurse Practitioners, 2 Clinical Pharmacists, 2 Physiotherapists, 1 midwife. The surgery are also looking to take on a GP assistant in the near future. With a background from the ambulance service as a paramedic assistant, this person will be working on introducing new improved systems in areas such as blood results, recalls for womens’ health etc. With regard to operations staff, this is ongoing. Some staff change have taken place over the last few months, and recruiting and training new staff for reception is ongoing. Several changes have also taken place in working practices, such as no lunchtimes and new phone systems. A Health Kiosk had also been put in place where the children’s play area had been. This will now allow patients to record their height, weight and blood pressure, which will then be recorded automatically onto their health record. Redecoration of the Surgery interior has been delayed. Another Covid clinic may be considered, although recently the uptake nationally has been low.

9.    Prescriptions & Pharmacy – Ifesi provided a comprehensive picture of the services currently provided at their New Addington pharmacy. They started this pharmacy from scratch 13 years ago, and currently provide a broad range of services including answering phone call enquiries, using text messages extensively to communicate with clients, medicine deliveries, as well as liaising closely with the local surgeries on repeat prescriptions and out of stock medicines.    

10. Facebook page – Candy has undertaken to look at how the page is working and look at making regular updates to the page with relevant content.

11. Next meeting 20th July 2023

12. AOB – nothing to report