Attendance
Staff: Beth Caldwell, Anna Kumar
Patients: Mike, David
| Practice Updates |
| Good Employment We have been awarded the Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter along with the other practices in the building. This is a voluntary scheme, providing our employees fair treatment and equitable opportunities within the workplace. We have also been advertising for a new GP to help accommodate to our growing population, and despite our struggles to employ a doctor last year, this year we have received a much larger number of applicants and believe this award has played a role in this. Cancer Updates We have a new Cancer Facilitator in the PCN, Beth as Cancer Lead communicates with them for advice and to keep updated on how other services are looking after their cancer patients. Our nurses are now also being trained to request chest x-rays when they have concerns, this is to help reduce waiting times for patients and avoid extra appointments being booked with the doctors. We discussed the various e-learning opportunities for the doctors such as GatewayC and the Macmillan website and how we can use more resources to spread awareness on the waiting room TV screen. We also discussed the Cancer Voices Community and support groups that we can raise awareness about and share with patients. New Phones We will be upgrading our phone services with a new cloud-based system which will make it easier for reception to triage calls and improves our record keeping. It will also offer more options for patients such as the ability to potentially cancel an appointment without speaking to a member of staff and a separate line for prescription requests to improve the flow of calls. The change will be made around March/April time, and we will be in touch for feedback when this happens. |
| Opportunities for the PPG |
| Things Happening in the Building The PCN (Primary Care Network) are planning to hold a larger PPG meeting with members from all the practices in the network, offering the opportunity for patients to compare the services and to help the practices be more cohesive and decide what is best for the patients. A new warm space has opened on the first floor between Hawkley Brook and The Grange Practice, anyone is welcome to pop over for a cup of tea or soup and a sit down. PPG members from other practices have spent time there to offer a friendly face and to keep people company, and our PPG are welcome to do the same. Waiting Room We discussed the PPG becoming more involved with the surgery, with opportunities to spend time in the waiting room to help patients with services, raise awareness and gather feedback. Also mentioned how we can use the TV in the waiting room, suggested filming a video about the PPG and reaching out to other services to gather more useful information to display. |
| Feedback |
| AskMyGP We have changed our AskMyGP times to 8:00am to 10:00am. We have noted that a lot of our negative feedback seems to be about these times. However, since the change was made, it has never had to be switched off due to capacity issues and we have been able to utilise appointments more effectively – as in the past we would receive a large number of requests in the afternoon when availability was low. With a consistent system, patients can work around the available times. Zero-Tolerance Discussed aggression from patients who have negative feedback and our zero-tolerance policy for this. The phone message has been updated to include this and stressed the importance of treating our staff with dignity and respect. |
| Any Other Business |
| Suggestions – Parking has been a long-standing issue for the building, discussed expanding the doctor’s only area to make parking a little more organised. Parking is particularly bad on a Wednesday when we have trainees from Greater Manchester attending, mentioned suggesting a shuttle bus to bring them instead. – We could use the warm space upstairs as space to hold different awareness talks, have members different services present to inform and educate on facilities we have. – We could record a variety of spiels discussing information about the PPG and other awareness to use for the phone queue rather than music. |