Latest Patient Board Meeting Minutes

Wednesday 10th of July 2024

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

Update on Services

The surgery has set their flu/covid autumn campaign dates as Saturday the 5th of October for those aged 65 and over and Saturday the 12th of October for those under the age of 65 in clinical at risk groups. The Board will review the proposed information that will go on our website for patients. It is not yet known which Covid-19 vaccine we will receive. The covid-19 vaccine funding has been reduced by £2.54 per vaccine this year so the season is more challenging for the surgery and the flu vaccine is even more important to us!

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 WoT 'Transport and Placemaking Group' has concluded a further survey, this time of the rat-running into the Village along Passage Road, during the Henbury Road lights work. This apparently led to more 'through' traffic diverting from Falcondale Road down Passage Road, including along Westbury Hill, outside the PCC. The implication is that the expected traffic growth on Falcondale Road following the major housing growth in South Gloucestershire will similarly lead to more traffic and congestion passing through the Village, inter alia, impacting vehicular traffic to and from the PCC from staff and patients.
The TPM is also looking at possible reconfigurations to the Westbury Hill car park, to reduce/remove the current blockage of Westbury Hill by drivers waiting to park there. One such option would also make it easier for vehicles to reach the PCC itself and not be further delayed within the car park.
It has also checked the BCC's current guidelines for disabled parking spaces for non-residential buildings, including Health Centres. It is recommended that these should be at least 5% of all spaces, which matches their current provision in the Westbury Hill car park.
TPM has a positive meeting with the Council officer leading the 'A4018' (Falcondale Road) response to the South Gloucestershire housing expansion, and agreed that any further proposals from Bristol to respond to these should be accompanied by public engagement and discussion with local voices and groups, unlike the public relations disaster of its previous 2019 proposals, since withdrawn after negative public reaction.
AGH is now a committee member of the Westbury-on-Trym Society, with a specific brief to lead on transport matters in the Village.
Last week the Council had proposed to close the Westbury Hill car park (on Election Day!) for relining. This would also affect access to the PCC's dedicated staff car park, yet the surgery had not been notified or consulted about the proposal (which was happily postponed, but will doubtless return!). The surgery has informed councillors that the surgery needs to be kept informed.
Unfortunately, the e-mail list that allowed all residents to stay up to date with any proposed car parking changes has potentially been lost following the local (Council) election results. This is due to data protection.

The Board agreed that it would be worth inviting the councillors along to our next meeting in October.

Digital Inclusion

The surgery has now hosted two Digital Inclusion workshops and the next is planned for September the 18th. It was attended by 5 patients.

Whilst feedback from the workshops has been welcomed and positive, we questioned if they were running efficiently. The hope is to run monthly sessions and she is not confident there is a demand for this. Whilst the surgery has the funding to support digital inclusion it is important that we utilise it to its full advantage. We are therefore, considering broadening the horizons of the sessions. For example, a coffee morning that can support patients with loneliness and inform them about a variety of services alongside digital inclusion i.e. pharmacy first, volunteer driver scheme, social prescribing etc. Is there a place for ‘digital awareness’ ahead of ’digital inclusion’ to best support people with their digital journeys?

It was agreed that this would be beneficial to the patient population. We discussed that we could advertise the coffee mornings in our waiting area, inform staff so they could direct patients appropriately and add this to our patient newsletter. The first is likely to take place in November 2024.

Overview of Patient Complaints and Compliments 2023/2024

Our non-clinical complaints lead joined the meeting today and summarised the complaints and compliments the surgery received in 2023 – 2024. Whilst the number of complaints received had increased, the number of compliments had also increased. This is as a result of increased recording and a change in culture where feedback is more forthcoming. We log concerns as well as complaints to ensure we utilise all learning opportunities. Each quarter the practice meets to discuss all complaints and learning opportunities and make any required process changes to improve services. Any outcomes are fed back to the individual who raised the complaint.

We discussed that the largest number of complaints received related to ‘clinical care’, closely followed by ‘prescriptions’ and ‘appointments’. We discussed the complex and confusing scenarios that can arise with prescriptions. Whilst some difficulties are not controlled by software systems within Westbury-on-Trym Primary Care Centre, we can still feedback to providers. It was suggested we could do more to remind patients that we are here to help with their medications. Suggestions included adding a message to our Prescription Clerk phone line.

Surgery Website

It was suggested that the role of our Care Navigators is unclear. The Board would welcome further information about our First Contact Physiotherapist.

AOB

The board are working on a new newsletter that will focus on:

Promotion of any coffee morning agreed
The role of a Care Navigator
A summary of complaints and compliments
A message to inform patients that we have a call back function on our phone system if you are more than number 6 in the queue
Update on Covid vaccine uptake

The Patient Board will next meet in October 2024.

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