PPG Minutes: 26th February 2025

 

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Time: 6:00pm to 7:30pm
 ocation: SMA Medical Centre

Present

  • SMA patients: 11 attendees in total (patient attendee numbers were supplied by NC and not named due to GDPR).
  • Andy Agathocleous (AA) Co-chair
  • Dr Patel - Lead GP and Hurley Group partner
  • Nick Chrisou (NC) Senior Practice Manager
  • Senior Practice Manager: Nick Christou (NC)
  • Apologies: Co-chair Mumtaz Patel.
 

Meeting Minutes

  • The minutes of the last meeting were reviewed and accepted by the attendees of the meeting as a true record.
  • Copies of the minutes were made available to all the meeting attendees and are available to all patients on the PPG area of the SMA practice
    website.
  • Action: (NC) The minutes from today’s meeting to be uploaded onto the PPG area of the SMA practice website
 

Guest Speaker

Dr. Patel hosted a question and answer session allowing patients the opportunity to ask questions on health topics and any concerns they have with the day to day running of the practice.

  • Patients can request to speak to reception staff in private if they feel their issue is confidential.
  • Dr Patel is at the practice on Monday and Wednesday afternoons providing clinical sessions.
  • Patients can request to see the same GP for consistency purposes, however all patient medical records are now digital so there should be a minimal difference if your regular GP is not available and you are seen or have telephone consultation by a different GP.
  • Patients are unable to book on-line face to face GP appointments because patients are triaged and filtered to the appropriate Clinician, and may not require a face to face GP appointment.
  • The majority of Community Pharmacists will speak to a patient about their symptoms without a GP referral). New prescription medications can only be prescribed or agreed by a GP.
  • Patients should only request repeat medication they require.
  • From August 2024 all econsults are triaged by a GP and prioritised accordingly.
  • Action: Dr Patel to attend the next PPG meeting
 

Practice Update

Nick Christou gave an update on the practice:

  • Full time Doctors: Dr. Sanjay Patel - Lead GP & Partner, Dr Shehla Qureshi - Associate Partner, Dr Henry Edung and Dr.Rajee Venkat.
  • One ST2 and one ST3 trainee doctors at the practice.
  • 5 Pharmacists - Noor Bukhari, Saima Malik, Iyesha Hussain, Shahid Chopdat, Majid Husein.
  • Ashley Tinham – Paramedic.
  • First Contact Physiotherapist - Lipi Halder and Jennifer Luke.
  • The practice receives approximately 300 calls a day.
  • Funding has been requested to build an additional upstairs GP consultation room, there are currently 8 GP consultation rooms.
  • 9 GP consultation rooms will allow for additional consultations.
  • NC gave a demonstration of how to access the Muskletal app.
  • Importance of completing a NHS GP survey.

Action: NC to provide a further update at our next PPG meeting.

 

PPG Update

  • The PPG chairs are recommending that all SMA patients obtain a password from the practice so that they can access and log into Patient Access to view their medical records and order repeat medications.
  • AA presented a live demonstration to the patients at today's PPG meeting on how to access their medical records using Patient Access and how to navigate the SMA practice website to locate the PPG area.
  • SMA patients can communicate directly with the PPG chairs by sending an email to smappgchairs@gmail.com regarding NON health related topics relating to the practice or NHS. The practice will not be able to access the emails you send to this email address.Posters have been displayed in the reception area of the practice with the contact telephone numbers for FedNet WF who provide GP services outside the normal opening hours of the practice including weekends. Blood test appointments can also be booked by calling FedNet.
  • AA represents the practice as chair of the SMA PPG at Health Watch Waltham Forest meetings where discussions are taking place on how to develop a strong PPG, complaint processes, and introduce the electronic blood test form.
  • The Comely Bank blood test centre has replaced the St James Street medical centre which is now permanently closed.
  • Patients who had concerns as to why Mumtaz P had not attended the last 3 PPG meetings were assured that Mumtaz will be at the next meeting.
 

Health Awareness Event

Patients at the meeting said they would like to see at the next PPG Event Dr Patel, health checks to include blood pressure and diabetic checks, Diabetes UK, Stroke UK, Social Prescribers.

 

Work in progress

  1. E-consult timings are 6am to 8pm 5 days a week. There was a discussion about whether the timings could revert back to 7 days a week 24 hours a day for patients who have a health concern. No plans at present to extend e-consult timings as the practice already provides substantially more availability for e-consults than most GP practices.
  2. Negotiations are ongoing with the practice manager to reinstate on-line pre-booked face to face GP appointments & messaging services.
  3. Why are promotional events such as PPG invites, patient surveys, pick up blood test forms, submit blood pressure readings and vaccination text message reminders to patients being recorded as consultations on the patient's medical records.
  • Action: NC to provide further updates to points 1-3 at the next PPG meeting.
 

Next PPG Meeting

Thank you all for attending and your input into today’s meeting.

We look forward to seeing you all at the Health Awareness Event on Saturday 12pm to 4pm at the SMA medical centre.