Latest Patient Board Meeting Minutes

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Wednesday 10th of April (Face to Face Meeting) 1pm to 2pm

Full meeting minutes are available upon request, this is a summary of the discussions

Update on Services

The surgery will be holding a Spring Covid-19 booster vaccine clinic on Saturday the 27th of April. This will be for those aged 75 years and over. Additional smaller clinics will operate in May for those who are immunosuppressed/can’t attend on the 27th. The surgery is not able to select the vaccine and must work with the one assigned.

The flu vaccine cannot be issued ahead of October this year. This is the case for both Primary Care and Pharmacy providers. The government are hoping that a later vaccine campaign start date will improve immunity over the winter season.

Transport

The local transport group have completed a study of pedestrian flows in the Village centre, to explore the case for a crossing on Stoke Lane and are in the middle of a 2-phase project of rat-running via Passage Road with the likely growth of traffic on the A4018 (Falc Rd) in mind.

The immediate threat of car park charging on Westbury Hill (and elsewhere) has receded at least until after the departure of the Mayor and Council elections in May, but it may well return. Both Labour and the Greens, likely to be the dominant parties, are declared supporters of restrictions on car usage and a switch to more sustainable modes of transport, which could include revisiting charging, so patients need to maintain vigilance. If not done yet, they might sign up to the email address set up by WOT Cllrs to keep locals up to speed with what's happening.

Digital Inclusion

Our first Digital Inclusion workshop is planned for the 1st of May 2024. The workshop will be held from 11am to midday but the Board members attending will meet at 10:30am to prepare. This is expected to be a small workshop initially of somewhere between 4 and 8 participants.

The Board discussed the Digital Questionnaire that will be circulated to patients during the Covid-19 vaccine clinic on Saturday the 27th of April. Changes were agreed to make it easier for patients to answer and we added a question asking what (if any) online services they already use.

The Board members participating in the workshops will be asked to sign a confidentiality agreement should any patient disclose information in conversation. This is currently with our Data Protection Officer for approval.

Patient Board Involvement Plan 2024-25

A draft version was previously circulated to the Board ahead of the meeting. The Board discussed its continual wish to expand membership to cover all patient demographics and work will continue on this. It was agreed that the Board will focus on, Digital Inclusion, surgery complaints and compliments (numbers only and no patient information will be disclosed), holding stalls on health issues as opportunities arise.

It was also agreed that we will plan a years’ worth of meetings in advance and anonymised minutes will be shared on Facebook and our website.

Surgery Website

The Board regularly review the surgery website and it was agreed all Board members to look at the website form a patient’s perspective and provide feedback as to how we can improve navigation of the site.

Feedback on Patient Board Newsletter

It was agreed that the last newsletter was well received and we will continue this.

Brief Report on PPG Champion Group Meeting held on 7th of March.

The PPG Champions Group meets approximately every two months and includes members of PPGs across England and features presentations from NHS England staff working on policy initiatives. In the process participants often provide feedback on the presentations. At the most recent meeting the theme was on Health Inequalities and Digital Exclusion.

The meeting started a brief report from the Chair of the Primary Care Community Engagement Strategy Group. Three points were stressed:

• Consideration by Healthwatch nationally to be organised by local authority or by local Integrated Care Board (ICB)
• ICBs are being required to generate 30% ‘efficiency savings’.
• Some tentative observations about the relationship of PPGs and Primary Care Networks

This was followed by a presentation and a Q and A session led by Karen Hunte from the NHS England Health Inequalities Improvement Programme, focusing on Digital Exclusion

The key points that emerged from the discussion were:

• Non-Digital alternatives in accessing health care services needs to be integrated into a digitally focused framework.
• Outreach to patients who lack the technology and/or confidence in handling digital technology must be a priority, with a focus of seeking to enable these patients to make use of digital technology.

The Patient Board will next meet in July 2024.