Approximately 130 people squeezed themselves into the gym, including, from the Practice:
- Alan Finch, Deputy Practice Manager
- Asif Dewan, Project Manager
- Sita Popat, Pharmacist
- Saloni Gaglani, Practice Nurse
- Phil Posner, GP, Managing Partner
- Natasha Smeaton, GP, PPG Link
- Loni Booker, Practice Manager
- Tia Davies, Carer Champion
Gill Walt introduced the PPG, and asked for emails of those interested in participating.
Natasha Smeaton introduced the staff members who talked about their roles.
- Alan Finch introduced himself as the Deputy Practice Manager, based at the Queens Crescent surgery; Asif Dewan introduced the new rotation pharmacist, Sita Popat, who will be coming to the Practice once a week, and will see, by appointment, patients who are taking 10 or more medications; Saloni Gaglani described the expanding role of nursing within GP practices. Nurses now deal with long term illnesses, women’s health, baby clinics, immunisation, Travel Clinics, among other services. It was noted that in the latest Patient/GP survey, the JW nursing service got 97% approval rate. Tia Davies, who is the Carers Champion talked about her support for carers.
A number of issues from the floor were raised:
- Patients are interested in learning more about the hierarchy of the staff members, how the Practice is run and how funding is managed
- Several patients had questions and concerns about waiting times for appointments. It was suggested that the Practice introduce a system of contacting those living close by when there are unexpected appointments available
- One patient noted that confidentiality is not respected by the phlebotomist’s office, with personal details being taken with the door wide open to the waiting area.
- Concern was expressed regarding outsourced services, in particular Physiotherapy.
- Continuity of Care: patients were unclear about why they see different doctors. The team system was discussed, and the difficulty of P/T and short term contracts. An ongoing project looking at the different groups of patient who might need continuity of care most urgently was discussed
Phil Posner talked about the ‘Neighbourhood’ structure. As GP practices are growing (JW has more than 20000 patients), practices are working together in geographical groups. JW belongs to the NW5 group (including JW, Queen’s Crescent, Caversham, Prince of Wales, Parliament Hill, Regents Park, and Ampthill practices). Neighbourhood practices ‘share’ certain services (eg the blood service at the KTHC) and specialists might be hired by the neighbourhood practices to work across the different surgeries – eg clinical pharmacists. Patients will remain registered with their original practice and GP.
Mimi Colahan introduced a plan for the PPG to support carers at James Wigg. Initially a letter will go out to all registered carers at the JW, asking what if any kind of support they might appreciate. This will be taken up at following meetings of the PPG in the autumn.
All those present were invited to stay for refreshments when the meeting ended at 7pm.
Next PPG meeting: Thursday 28th September 2017 at 2 pm
