At its last meeting on Thursday 25th August the group discussed how:
- A new Advanced Nurse Practitioner had been appointed for RPC East (Rectory Road and Inkersall) and she will be doing in-clinic work and helping with community and house bound patients. A part-time GP had also been appointed to RPC East, starting in October.
- Interviews are due to start shortly for a Frailty Specialist, an Advanced Nurse Practitioner who will focus on house bound patients to ensure they receive adequate care at home and thus reduce the need for them to attend hospital.
- The CQC assessment at RPC West resulted in an overall ‘Good’ rating thanks to the hard work and dedication of the team prior to the inspectors’ visit. Posters about the result will be displayed in the near future.
- A campaign has been started to get some PPG members for Brooklyn and there has already been interest. It was discussed that a text message campaign would be the first step to attract patients to join in our PPG meetings and to draw attention to the PPG Facebook page with the intention of having an integrated PPG for the whole of RPC.
- Updates to Next-of-Kin information are taking place via text messages to ensure that records are kept current. Handwritten sympathy cards have been re-introduced and are sent to the family or household of patients who have died expressing the practice’s condolences and drawing attention to the availability of bereavement support advice.
- Flu clinics were due to start at the end of September as soon as vaccine deliveries were received. It was intended that on Saturday, September 24th clinics would be held at Rectory Road, Clay Cross and Ashgate surgeries when it was intended that at least 900 patients per site would receive their vaccination. PPG members are asked to help on the day greeting and guiding patients and perhaps carrying out a survey. At Brooklyn surgery the flu clinic would be on Saturday, October 8th and there will be midweek evening clinics and perhaps morning clinics throughout October and November for those unable to attend the Saturday dates.
- Those aged between 50 – 64 who are not considered ‘at risk’ will not be offered the vaccination until the middle of October. Primary Care Networks will be responsible for Covid vaccinations. RPC falls within three different PCNs, all will be doing it slightly differently. In Chesterfield, it is thought that PCNs will vaccinate care home and house bound patients with the Covid and flu vaccines, one at a time in care homes, one in each arm at the same time for the house bound though that may change.
- The chair raised the issue of whether future meetings might revert to face-to-face, be a hybrid of face-to-face and on-line or continue as on-line only. He had been aware that some members had not been able to join us on-line whereas others, for a variety of reasons, would not be able to attend face-to-face meetings. The chair felt that all members should be able to give their opinion and would send out a survey before the next meeting. In the meantime he would liaise with the practice about solutions for members who were having difficulty joining on-line meetings.
- The urgent need for a PPG secretary. One member offered to resume the role provided we stayed as we were and he could utilise meeting transcripts provided by the practice. The chair appreciated his offer but wondered if anyone would be prepared to job-share.Please note the date of the next meeting: 4:00 – 6:00pm, Thursday, October 20thOur PPG is always looking to recruit new members. Membership of the PPG is free and open to all patients registered with Royal Primary Care together with surgery staff. We welcome members from all age groups, ethnic backgrounds and those with disabilities to help ensure our group truly represents our patient population.If you are interested in joining our PPG, please visit the PPG page on the Royal Primary Care websiteIf you can’t commit to joining our bimonthly meetings, you join our PPG facebook page via the following link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/rpcppg