Patient Participation Group (PPG)

Introduction

• The Chair welcomed attendees of the Patient Participation Group (PPG).

Minutes of the last meeting

Minutes had been circulated and placed onto Ivry Street website. No members had any amendments to make.

Action log

Actions from the previous meeting were reviewed / discussed and re-appointed for actions where required.

Agenda Points Discussion

The following topics were raised as agenda items to be discussed during this meeting

Action log updates / discussions

Website testing from patient perspective. Jonathan has completed extensive website testing using various AI 'people' to look at from the view of various patient demographics. The results showed lots of work to do to bring the website to a functionality that can work for all. Practice partner, James Pawsey is keen to meet with Jonathan to discuss this further, and also to see if further rollout across Ipswich / Suffolk could be beneficial. The plan is to make the changes suggested, and then re-test, using both the AI 'people' and representatives of the PPG simultaneously. Janet will review James' rota to arrange an appropriate date / time to meet.

Action: PPG0018 and PPG0023: Arrange meeting with Jonathan to continue development and testing.

Covid booster uptake. At the last meeting the PPG had indicated it would be good to know the uptake for the spring booster campaign. Ivry Street were allocated 600 doses of Moderna vaccine. The uptake for this was 100%. The doses were much smaller than in previous years. The rationale behind this from the ICB is to reduce wastage of vaccine. Also removed was the potential for sharing vaccine with other practices, which has worked well previously. Our admin team worked hard to ensure that those patients who needed the vaccine the most were prioritised. It is worth noting that vaccines can still be obtained by local pharmacy visits.

The practice was asked to monitor any operational impact following the rollout of NHS app. We can report that we have not had any feedback at all – positive or negative, so cannot comment further.

Details of the weight loss programme for Suffolk was discussed, including the criteria for referral. The new service is referral via GP only, and essentially has 3 pathways in which patients may be triaged to.

1 – Complex Obesity Service. This pathway offers specialist dietary advice, obesity management and medications, bariatric surgery pathways. The eligibility for this programme is that patients must have BMI of equal to or greater than 35 (reduced by 2.5kg/m2 for people from various ethnic minority backgrounds, OR a BMI for 30-34.9 with at least one of the weight related complications listed: Type 2 diabetes mellites, T2DM with complications, Obstructive Sleep Apnoea, Obesity Hypoventilation Syndrome, Heart Failure, Ischaemic Heart Disease, Myocardial Infarction, Stroke, Metabolic Steatohepatitis, Metabolic Cirrhosis, Infertility, Obesity related cancer, Pre-diabetes, Hypertension, Hyperlipidaemia, Peripheral Vascular Disease, Liver Disease, Chronic Kidney Disease, Lymphoedema, Intracranial Hypertension, Abdominal wall failure/ Hernia (BMI related), Surgery preclusion due to BMI >35, Atrial Fibrillation, Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, Gastro-oesophageal Reflux Disease, Osteoarthritis.

Patients will be considered for access to obesity medications in primary care settings where they meet the NHS ENGLAND CRITERIA; BMI greater than or equal to 40, and four out of the following five comorbidities; Hypertension, Dyslipidaemia, Obstructive Sleep Apnoea, Cardiovascular Disease, Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.

2 – Local weight management services. Local lifestyle and weight management programmes (Feel Good Suffolk/Essex Wellbeing Service)

3 – National programmes; Digital weight management, NHS diabetes prevention programme, Type 2 diabetes Path to Remission Programme. (currently referrals are being made to Counterweight)

It was discussed that currently all referrals are GP led, with no current option for patients to self-refer. The PPG group decided it may like to draft a complaint letter to the ICB, reflecting the restrictive access to these pathways.

Action: PPG0024 – PPG rep to draft letter from PPG to ICB.

Friends & Family data. Data is readily available to the public, and the link will be shared with PPG members via separate email. The data for March is as follows:

• 13935 patients
• 27 responses
• 100% positive
• 26 very good / 1 good

We discussed the low uptake of patients completing the survey, and it was mentioned about the ability to do this anonymously and for those that don't use technology. We currently have paper based surveys in the waiting room, with a box to enable anonymous submission. Jannine will look to see whether our check-in screens can incorporate the hospital style smiley face pads and report back.

Action: PPG00246 -Jannine to investigate adding smiley faces to check-in screens. Practice to consider QR codes in waiting rooms for Friends and Family Survey.

Emily provided feedback on the appointment / phone data that had been previously discussed, with data taken from our March PCN submissions for the national pilot programme. Key data was:

Average wait time for a call to be answered between peak times of 0800 – 1030 was 13 minutes. This does include patients who have selected the 'call-back' function.

The number of urgent appointment requests by patients (appointments given within 48 hours) was 100%, however the number of patients calling 111 during core operational hours of 0800 – 1830 is 1 in 1000 patients. (list size being circa 13900).

Online request submissions per 1000 patients is over 10% of the practice – this includes patients who submit multiple requests / daily basis.

FTE per 1000 for online and telephone access – 20% every week.

As part of the discussion, we spoke about how the online access affects capacity – it takes a full time non-clinical reception team member to monitor and pre-triage to determine if the request is administrative, pharmacy or clinically relevant – they will then forward to the respective team. We need one full time clinician to be able to clinically triage all eConsults that come in throughout the day – the ICB contract states that all submissions must have a response during the same working day. These then go on to generate tasks from the clinical or pharmacy teams, which are fed back to reception with instructions on how to book the patient – we currently triage as on the day emergency, within one week, two weeks, three weeks or four weeks. The triaging clinician may also provide advice & guidance, signpost to other services or raise a prescription if needed.

In a bid to combat the phone waiting times between 0800hrs and 1030hrs, all non-clinical staff will now answer the phones between 0800 and 0830, including the Practice Manager. By extending the licences for phone software, we have been able to reduce call waiting times to 3 minutes (on average). We have set ourselves a target of 2 minutes.

Agenda Items Discussed

PPG Resignations

Cliff Oakley and Maria Riddel have both resigned from the PPG. We thank them very much for their involvement thus far. Discussion around whether the PPG is suitably represented in terms of demographics. Agreed that younger, carers, LD patients would be a good addition. Each member has agreed to think about whether they know a patient who may be suitable, and if so advise the Practice Manager, who will make contact.

Building works update

As is plainly clear, the building works have overrun. There are several reasons, mainly related to issues with materials required. We are on the home straight now, with an anticipated date of 22nd June. This is of course subject to change should any further issues arise.

Staffing Updates

We have recently recruited 2 new staff members to our reception team – this was needed due to the time taken out to manage the eConsults and associated tasks.

We have recruited a part time nurse to join our nursing team. We do not anticipate needing further nursing staff at this time.

1 full time administration / med secretary has been recruited

1 part time Finance Officer has been recruited – this work has until now been completed by the Practice Manager.

We are currently advertising for 1 x salaried GP, 1 x HCA and 1 x Paramedic OR Physician Associate.

Agenda item brough by Patricia Gondris & Tracey Dockery – Why is the waiting room empty a lot of times

This question was posed via email from two of our PPG participation members as a point of interest or concern. Member advises that has been approached by several people who express puzzlement by the absence of people in the waiting room. This was discussed during the practice MDT also, which is attended by the Partners, GPs, Clinicians, Pharmacy teams etc for a canvassing of opinion to the question. It was noted that it was disappointing that this was being raised as a topic of discussion, however should be discussed with the PPG members.

In light of the lengthy conversation held regarding the appointments, calls, online accesses etc earlier in the session, it was very much agreed that the practice is as busy as ever, if not more so. The lack of patients in the waiting room would indicate a good rate of work (face to face appointments have been extended to 15 minutes), with no major hold ups in appointment time. There is much work done behind the scenes with telephone consults and online triage. The PPG members in attendance felt this was a moot point as we have already demonstrated the vast workload the surgery is tackling each day.

It was discussed that where a PPG member brings an agenda item, it would be helpful for them to attend to provide context for the item.

Any other business

No other business was raised

Date, Time & venue of the next meeting

• Date: 2nd September 2026
• Time: 6pm
• Venue: Ivry Street Medical Practice