Open Meeting: 21st September 2018

Those present:

Core Group: Audrey Alford, Paul Alford, David Williams, Anne Allan

Patients: Sylvia Webb, Chris Webb, Shri Mehrotra

(apologies received from Craig Marriott, Hannah Street, Mr Kennedy)

 

Item Action
1.       Open meeting:

 

A.Alford welcomed new attendee Shri as well as returning Virtual Group (VG) members Sylvia and Chris and provided them with an update of the work currently being undertaken by the OCH Patient Participation Group (PPG) in conjunction with the Practice.

 

Shri keen to be involved with the PPG. Sylvia and Chris have been members of the VG for a while now and have attended previous meetings. All three are willing to help in whatever way they are able. The Core Group (CG) thanked them for their attendance, interest, ongoing support and offers of help.

 

Main discussion points:-

1)       Extended hours hubs (currently at Wrythe Green, Carshalton and OCH, central Sutton with plans to run a third in Wallington) the 111 service and late opening pharmacies e.g. Asda (until 11pm) Rose Hill (until midnight). There is an out of hours GP service at St. Helier. One member had recently had some experience of using the 111 service but not been aware of the extended hub hours.

2)       Sutton Clinical Commissioning Group – intend to circulate a communication about where to go when, giving more information so people can better decide which service they need 111, GP or pharmacy improving efficient use of resources.

3)       Flu vaccinations, their supply and who offers them.

4)       Positive progress being made with the remodelling. Once complete RHL will no longer be available but both OCH and RHL will be able to expand and offer more services, which are needed.

5)       Polish, Tamil and Urdu are the biggest 3 languages after English in the Sutton area, so language courses are being delivered by Tamil, Urdu and Polish speaking health advocacy workers (to remove the language barrier) focusing on NHS services and how best to access them.

6)       New ‘acute unit’ – Epsom and St. Helier sites unsuitable in real terms but being refurbished. There is a need in the SW area for acute facilities which could be based at Epsom, St. Helier or at a new build on part of the old Sutton Hospital space. Seen as more efficient to have all the experts together on one site.

7)       A practice newsletter is published several times a year and has items written by the GPs and PPG. The next one will have articles updating some of the above issues.

 

The PPG concerns itself with matters relating to the OCH Practice and patients experience within it. It does not deal with any medical matters or complaints. There is a good working relationship between the PPG Core Group and the Practice.

 

 

Shri to be added to the Virtual Group (VG) email list

 

All VG members are sent notes of meetings, invited to Open meetings as well as requests to assist with surveys/questionnaires

 

 

AA 24 October 2018