June 21, 2023

Agenda

Gainford Surgery - Patient Participation Group meeting

At the surgery

Agenda

Tuesday 13th June - 6.00pm-7.00pm

 

1.      To discuss and agree new terms of reference, privacy agreement and ground rules.

2.      Continue to discuss the following:

a.      What is the purpose and role of Gainford PPG?

b.    Agree patient engagement strategy.

3.   Advance notice of vote for Chair, Vice chair and secretary:

           Chair, Organise PPG meeting, liaise with the group re: agenda. Agree agenda with Practice Manager. Teesdale PRG representation – see attachment for details.

            Vice Chair – Covers for Chair in their absence.

a       Secretary - Take minutes of Gainford PPG meetings, send to Chair & Practice Manager for approval. A copy of which will be emailed to all group members once approved.

  4. Resignations:

YT – YT resigned her position of chair on the 1st of June 2023 stating personal reasons.

CB – CB resigned from the group a while ago stating personal reasons

5. Patient Engagement: 

Parish news – how would you like to manage this moving forward?

Representation @ Countywide PRG – LG to give overview of this. Any member of the PPG can represent the practice at this meeting.

Minutes

Gainford Surgery - Patient Participation Group

Extraordinary Meeting – Tuesday 13th June 2023

Held at Gainford Surgery

 

Attending:      WB, MF, MG, LG, NO, LR, CS, BT

Apologies:      PD, SH

This extraordinary Gainford PPG meeting was called in light of the recent resignation of the PPG Chairperson, YT.

NO opened the meeting to say thank you to all, for taking the time to attend, and as Vice Chairperson, he explained about YT’s resignation, and where we go from here. 

NO then handed over to LG.

LG started by saying that this situation was new to all of us with the untimely resignation of YT and thanked NO for stepping up to help and support her, through this unusual time.  

LG explained that she had been reviewing our current Terms of Reference, and these will be amended and reissued in light of this resignation. 

Advance Notice of Vote for Chair, Vice Chair and Secretary

As a group, there are 3 roles that need to be elected on, and names were put forward, as below.  These are:-

a    Chair – Organise PPG meeting, liaise with the group re: agenda.  Agree agenda with Practice Manager.  Teesdale PRG Representation.

CS put forward his name

Vice Chair – Covers for Chair in their absence.

NO and WB both volunteered

Secretary – Take minutes of GPPG meetings, send to Chair & Practice Manager for approval.  A copy of which will be emailed to all group members once approved.

LR put forward her name.

LG will email the two missing members and email a final list for voting, as soon as she can.

Resignations

LG wanted to start by saying a very big thank you to YT for all her hard work that she has done during her time with the PPG and as Chairperson.  In all the years that YT was part of the PPG, she had never missed a meeting, going above and beyond, and on behalf of the PPG committee, wanted to wish her well.

LG also confirmed at this time, that she had been made aware of CB also resigning, something none of us at the meeting were aware of.  On behalf of the committee, LG also thanked CB for her work and valuable time given whilst working with the PPG, she was always a positive member of our team.

Discuss and Agree New Terms of Reference, Privacy Agreement and Ground Rules

Going forward, if members were looking to resign from the PPG, can we all ensure that the Chair and Practice Manager are both informed.

We also need to review rules and what we are trying to achieve as a group.  To that end, LG had added a few comments to the PPG Ground Rules, and asked for comments/ approval regards these, which are highlighted below in yellow:-

Patient Participation Group Rules

 

·         All members are equally important, and all opinions should be heard and respected.  All group members should be involved in decision making and should be actively involved in setting the group agenda. – agreed at the meeting to include.

·         Feed back from the PPG should be agreed as a group, prior to providing that feedback to the practice. – this new point was agreed at the meeting.

·         No accounts, social media/email, should be created or used without the explicit agreement of the practice.  Anyone found to be creating accounts affiliated with the PPG or the surgery without the explicit consent of the practice, will face immediate dismissal from the group.  - added at the meeting -   + may result in action in ???? ????? ???? in relation to GDPR.

Some of the above additions have been taken in light of an email address that was named PPG and used by our group.  We have been lucky that nothing went wrong with using this “email address”, especially within the Parish News, in light of GDPR and other legislation.  It had also come to light that a “Gainford PPG” FB page had been created, but LG was unsure who created this and why.  Nobody at tonight’s meeting knew about this FB page and it is currently showing as inactive.  LG has notified FB of this page and hopefully, this will be removed soon.

LR offered to forward the GDPR letter she currently uses, plus policies to cover this area, and email usage, so that these policies can potentially be adapted for use by the PPG, going forward.

LG and BT will look after the email mailbox for the practice used for communications, and hopefully, with the enhanced T & C’s, the practice, and the PPG, will be covered against any potential breaches.

The PPG article within the Parish News is a very valuable tool for the area.  Going forward, as to how this should be managed, needs to be addressed, to keep the quality that we have enjoyed before these changes.  Someone from the PPG needs to take ownership and it was suggested that at each meeting, the group gives input.  Going forward, no one person would write for the Parish News on behalf of the PPG, but we would do it as a group, albeit with one person having the main ownership. 

It was also suggested that parts of the PPG Chairperson roles be shared rather than being left for one person, as has happened prior to this meeting.  This would help with continuity of this role and was suggested that we do this for all roles within the group.

To help with sharing information, rather than emailing lots of files, that the group work on, a specific Team Group for the PPG be created, enabling documents to be shared more easily – that way the PPG and Practice has more control on confidential information being shared and not potentially being emailed to the wrong email addresses.

As an example, LR has shared a screen shot from one of the Teams she uses at work.

(unable illustrate on website)

Maybe the PPG could look to work with something similar, which would help with sharing information and continuity going forward, especially in these constantly changing times.

Within our region, as well as our PPG, there are 3 main groups that meet regularly and it is helpful for a representative to attend, although not always from GPPG, these are: -

PCN -   The current acting Teesdale PCN Group Chair representative is from Pinfold PPG;

TPRG - Teesdale Regional Group - meet via Teams or face to face (usually at Bishop Auckland).  Meetings are either monthly or bi-monthly and Gainford Surgery would like someone to attend as and when and in the past, this has been the PPG Chair.

PRG -   Patient Reference Group - LG will ask Daniel Blagdon (ICB) or a member of his team to attend our next meeting so that he can inform the group, what happens at these meetings.

MF and WB both showed interest in attending these meetings, either together, individually or with the elected Chairperson, although it was suggested that no more than two PPG members attended at any one time.

These group meetings are a great way to share information/ideas – sharing is good.

LG said thank you to the group for the interest shown, it is great the way we are all inputting and working together.  For the time being, she would like the group to stay the way we are with 8 members and have a group cap of 10 members in the future.

Any Other Business

The PPG

It was mentioned that notes have been taken of role of PPG, but this is just a skeleton and not what the whole group is about.  Sometimes the group will be quiet but then other times, we will be quite busy, either is good for the group.

NO came up with a great quotation, unfortunately notes could not be taken quickly enough but when repeated, was something like “It is important the the PPG is not too prescriptive, but not managed on a minute basis either.  We are not a fan club as such, but here to get involved and help.''

Originally, formalising and developing role etc. not fan club but not big brother either.  Evolve, communicate, going to meetings, attending stuff, and communicating.

The PPG aims and objectives are “to foster the highest possible standard of primary medical care through the medium of patient participation and to enhance communications between patients and the practice team.  To be achieved by collaboration, communication, and mutual trust”.

If during our role of PPG members, other patients have complaints, our role is to direct them to the Practice, the practice has a complaints form and are always asking for constructive input.

If the PPG work as a group and spread the load, it will be easier in the long run, and will also help with continuity.

Any new potential PPG members should also be directed to the GP practice and not via the PPG – the practice might know of reasons that we are not aware of as a group, as to why certain individuals might not be suitable for the PPG.

MF suggested that at the next meeting we focus on priorities and immediate/middle turn type actions.

As the meeting came to a close at 7:00pm, NO took the time to thank both LG and BT for helping.

Next Meeting

Next team meeting to be held on Tuesday 11th July 2023, 6pm – 7.30pm at the Surgery.