Bridgegate Medical Practice requires patients to sit on the Patient Participation Group.

The group is there to advise the practice on patients' views regarding development of services and allows the practice to consider patient views when reviewing and changing systems.

We aim to make the group representative of all our patients and are particularly interested in recruiting younger patients, parents of young children, and people from ethnic groups, who are not yet well-represented in the group.

If you are interested then please contact Diane Clark, Practice Manager on 01229 820304 or email dianeclark1@nhs.net

Many thanks for your assistance

BMC Patient Participation Group Report 2012/13

The Group was established during 2011.  Meetings held in the current year were 30 April 2012 and 24 September 2012.  This timescale was in line with the Terms of Reference established by the Group.

We have continued to try and make The Group more representative of the patient population. We have been able to recruit the parents of young children, however we still do not feel that we have an ethnic diversity to reflect the local community and therefore continue to advertise on our website and notice boards in the practice to increase representation from those groups.

Diane Clark, Practice Manager, chaired the meetings throughout the year at the behest of the Patient Group, and was joined by clinical representation led by Dr Sudha Kapila and Karen Donnan, Health Care Assistant.

In regard to the Terms of Reference established in 2011, with the assistance of The Group in the format, style and questioning, the practice undertook a Patient Satisfactory Survey during the summer months of 2012.

After analysis the results showed that practice satisfaction overall reflected that 97% of patients were happy with the services offered. Patients thought that the way they were dealt with by the reception staff was “excellent”.  How quickly a patient could be seen was “good” and the length of time to see the doctor of their choice was “fair”.

It became clear from the survey that patients were unaware of the availability of telephone appointments with doctors and the high number of non-attendance was apparent; this lead to the recommendation that the telephone messaging system be refined.  The outgoing messages have been amended to reflect The Group’s proposals and call record has also been implemented.  Notices as to telephone appointment availability have been displayed in the various waiting areas and the practice would look into establishing a text/phone reminder for patient appointments.  This has been taken forward at present with procedures which require both a doctor and nurse for a double appointment, where reception staff phones the evening before to remind the patients of the appointments.

Suggestions for structural changes to the practice by The Group, particular in regard to a children’s play area, have come into conflict with the Compliance of Regulations for CQC Registration, where the area identified to accommodate children, conflicts with the need for a private waiting area and an alternative is still to be found. 

The short term solution to wheelchair access has been to provide a bell at the surgery entrance and the long term plan is to research products and commission either a push pad or mechanical arm to open the door (cost permitting).

At present the management of the surgery is in a period of transition with Diane Clark retiring at the end of March 2013 and the former Office Manager, Philip Jones, taking on the post.  However we will continue in the forthcoming year to consult with The Group, particularly in the areas of our compliance with CQC Registration to enable us to focus on patient care and expectations.

BMC Patient Participation Group Report 2011/12

A group was established during 2011 and first met in February 2012.  The group decided that they would like to be known as "Bridgegate Medical Centre Patient Participation Group".  They aimed to meet twice yearly, however it was agreed that more frequent meeting should be held whilst the group was being established.

We aim to make the group representative of all our patients but we acknowledge that this may take time and we wish to recruit some young people and parents of young children as well as ethnic groups. Please see table attached at foot of this document.  We continue to advertise on our Website and our noticeboards in the practice and hope to increase our representatives.

During our meeting in February we agreed that the focus of the group was to provide a patient perspective to the practice, provide a forum to discuss issues and enable patients to inform and perhaps influence local health care services i.e. feed into wider commissioning groups in the Locality.  The group will be consulted on all major developments planned for the future and will be involved in the Patient Satisfaction Survey planned for Spring 2012.

Due to time constaints and the introduction of a new computer system the practice had not conducted a patient survey during 2011, however the results of the National Survey were discussed, which show Bridgegate Medical Centre comparing very favourably to the local and Cumbria averages.  A survey had also been undertaken with mums, who needed their children to be seen on the day and the results of this were shared with the group.  This survey showed a high level of satisfaction with access for children.

The Patient Participation Group aim to meet again at the end of April to bring their ideas forward for the focus of the 2012 Patient Satisfaction Survey.  Following this the results will be discussed and an action plan formulated.  The group offered suggestions in the interim that could be acted upon (see action plan).

Following our meeting the minutes were drafted and circulated to all the members present.  These were subsequently agreed and posted on this Website and can be found at:  www.bridgegatemedicalcentre.nhs.uk

A copy of the minutes can be found on our noticeboard and advertised in our practice leaflet.

MINUTES PPG 30 APRIL 2012

MINUTES OF PPG MEETING 24 SEPTEMBER 2012