MINUTES OF LLANFYLLIN & DISTRICT MEDICAL PRACTICE PATIENT PARTICIPATION GROUP

Transcription

1 MINUTES OF LLANFYLLIN & DISTRICT MEDICAL PRACTICE PATIENT PARTICIPATION GROUP HELD ON MONDAY 27TH FEBRUARY 2012, AT 6.30PM IN LLANFYLLIN MEDICAL PRACTICE Present: Mrs F Hunt (Chairman) Mr P Cannon, Llanfechain County Councillor Aled Davies Mr H Edwards, Llansilin Mr M Foulkes, Four Crosses Mrs M Hughes, Llanrhaeadr M Jones, Llanfyllin Mr W O Jones, Pool Quay Mrs M Lloyd, Guilsfield Mr B Morgan, Llanrhaeadr Mrs P Page-Jones, Llanfyllin Mrs M Wilde, Llangedwyn Mrs A Williams, Llanfyllin Mrs Susan Lewis, Practice Manager, Llanfyllin Medical Practice Dr Melanie Plant, GP, Llanfyllin Medical Practice Mr Ken Raines, Co-ordinator, Llanrhaeadr First Responders Scheme Mrs Andrea Blayney, Montgomery CHC (taking notes) Apologies: Mr R Dawson County Councillor Mrs E Jones Mrs J Rogers Mr G Tibbott The Chairman welcomed two new members to the Group, Mr Bernard Morgan and M Jones 1. Notes of the Previous Meeting Held on Monday 7 th November 2011 Action The notes of the meeting were agreed as a correct record. 2. Matters Arising (a) Minute 2 Practice Website The Practice Manager, Susan Lewis, reported that the website had not gone live yet. 98% of the required work had been done. The website had been shared internally with the team in the Practice. It was hoped that it would go live week commencing 5 th March. Page 1 of 5

2 Members were urged to look at the website when it was live and, if there was anything which they considered to be wrong, please feed that back to the Practice staff. The website address would be (b) (c) Minute 3 Complaints, Compliments and Comments Procedure Members agreed to invite the CHC's Complaints Advocate, Shanaz Dorkenoo, to the next meeting of the PPG. Minute 4b Message in a Bottle The Chairman, Frances Hunt, reported that the letter to the Community Councils was nearly ready to go, but some information on the numbers of patients in higher risk categories, who might be targeted, was awaited from the Practice. It was considered that the PPG should start in a small way, and build up from that. The Chairman thought that older people should be targeted initially. It was hoped that community councils would be able to work with the PPG by publicising the scheme, identifying people in the community and also helping to distribute the bottles. Susan Lewis said that the Practice would also promote the scheme. Frances Hunt explained that the Ambulance Services, in Wales and across the border, would need to be made aware of the scheme. The bottles would be available only to patients of Llanfyllin and District Medical Practice but, if there were people living in the area who were losing out by that, the issue should be brought back to the PPG to see if there was anything that could be done. 3. Welsh Ambulance Service Meet Your Ambulance Service Events Andrea Blayney reminded members about the event which was to be held in Llandrindod Wells on 19 th March. Dr Plant informed members that the Practice, along with other GP practices in the area, would be taking the issue of waiting times for ambulances to Powys THB. She asked members to inform the Practice Manager if they became aware of cases where patients were waiting a long time for an ambulance. Frances Hunt said that she would wholeheartedly support what the GPs were doing in raising the issue with the Health Board. The First Responders in Llanrhaeadr were very much aware of ambulance waiting times which could be well over eight minutes. She was not aware of a second target. Page 2 of 5

3 4. Any Other Business (a) Hywel Dda Health Board Discussion Document Information on Public Meetings Members had received information on the public meetings which had been arranged jointly between Powys THB and Montgomery CHC, and which would be held in Machynlleth and Llanidloes on Monday 5 th March The meetings had been arranged in order for the Health Board to meet members of the public and hear their thoughts on local health services, including those services provided in Bronglais General Hospital, Aberystwyth. The meetings were being held in Machynlleth and Llanidloes as those were the areas most likely to use services provided by Hywel Dda Health Board, but the meetings were open to anyone who wished to attend. Dr Plant added that Powys THB was improving outreach services, eg they had introduced a mobile scanning unit, which would mean that patients could be seen in Welshpool or Newtown rather than having to travel to Shrewsbury. (b) Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire Dr Plant informed members that there was a patient questionnaire which came from the Welsh Government, but that did not often ask the questions which GP practices wanted to know the answers to. The GPs in Llanfyllin were very interested in looking at the difficulties people were having in accessing their services, and also wished to have patient input on what services they would like to have. The GPs thought that, if the questions were being asked by other patients, people would be more likely to give very honest answers. Dr Plant asked whether the PPG would be prepared to take part in that process. It would also be an opportunity for patients to become more aware of the PPG. The PPG members felt that this was a good idea, and agreed that they would take part. It was agreed that the Practice would devise the questions and bring them to the next meeting of the PPG. It was hoped that the survey could be carried out in the summer. 5. Date of Next Meeting The next meeting was arranged for Monday 21 st May 2012, at 6.30pm. Page 3 of 5

4 6. Presentation by Llanrhaeadr First Responders Mr Ken Raines, Co-ordinator for Llanrhaeadr First Responders Scheme, then joined the meeting. Frances Hunt declared an interest as she was a First Responder in Llanrhaeadr too. Mr Raines gave an overview of how the Scheme worked and explained that all the First Responders received professional training from the Welsh Ambulance Service, and had to pass high standards of examinations. Training was ongoing. The Scheme was entirely voluntary, and items such as bags, clothing and defibrillators had to be purchased from voluntary funds. The Scheme covered a large area, and Ambulance Control made the decision as to where/when the First Responders were called to attend patients. If they were short of ambulance cover, the First Responders were called. Calls varied, but they were mostly to do with breathing problems. They were not called to road traffic collisions because of the implications around insurance (it was classed as a dangerous environment), nor were they called to child birth cases. One difficulty was that they had to rely on telephone calls for contact. They did not have use of a radio system, but they had an ambulance mobile phone however, that was often of no use in this area because of poor signal reception. Dr Plant asked whether the First Responder was taken into account for target times by the Ambulance Service, and Mr Raines explained that it was. Frances Hunt said that they were desperately worried about ambulance response times. A PPG member asked whether the ambulance still went to a patient when the First Responders were called to attend. Yes, the ambulance and the first responders would be mobilised at the same time. Ken Raines said that he had been to jobs when he had been with a patient for 45 minutes to an hour before the ambulance had arrived. Dr Plant informed the meeting that there was now a cross border agreement between the Welsh Ambulance Service and the West Midlands Ambulance Service, so that the nearest ambulance would respond to a call. Ken Raines said that the Oswestry Ambulance Station would be closing in March. An important message to get out to people was the need to be very specific with the information provided when they call the Ambulance Service, particularly if a patient was experiencing Page 4 of 5

5 chest pain or breathing difficulties. The First Responders Scheme in Llanrhaeadr needed more people. They also needed more equipment, and members of the scheme were constantly fundraising. Defibrillators had to be renewed every seven years, and they cost 1300 each. The equipment bags cost 100 each. The equipment inside the bags was supplied by the Welsh Ambulance Service. First Responders were not allowed to give drugs to patients at present, but that might change in the future. The First Responders often had difficulty finding properties because people were reluctant to have house names on their properties. Frances Hunt had tried, through the Chronicle, to encourage people to put names on their properties. Ann Williams explained that she had been to a meeting at the Welsh Government, when the Ministers had been pushing for more use of volunteers but people would have to find their own funding. There was a discrepancy between what first responder schemes in Wales had compared to what the West Midlands Ambulance Service provided for their first responders. In England, First Responders were used more. In Oswestry, the First Responders were provided with a car. The Llanrhaeadr First Responders used their own vehicles; they received a mileage allowance but that was put back into the funds to help buy equipment. Llanrhaeadr First Responders really needed a radio system but the Welsh Ambulance Service said that they could not afford to provide one. Ken Raines then gave a demonstration of the defibrillator, and also demonstrated the cardiopulmonary resuscitation procedure. Members of the PPG were encouraged to attempt the procedure on the CPR dummy. Mr Raines said that, if any community obtained a public access defibrillator, the Welsh Ambulance Service would train people to use it and that training would be free. Members thanked Mr Raines for his attendance at the meeting and for giving the demonstrations and updating members on the Llanrhaeadr scheme. Page 5 of 5