[The Panel will receive the results of the survey sent to all Patient Participant Groups].
Minutes:
The Director of Operations at the CCG (Clinical Commissioning Group) introduced the item on Patient Participation Groups (PPG). He introduced the Primary Care Contracts Manager for the CCG and the GP Practice Manager for Probert Road Surgery.
The Chairman of the Panel had provided the CCG with a list of questions to conduct an online survey with all the PPGs in the Wolverhampton area. The responses had been collated into a presentation (the slides of which are attached to the signed minutes).
The Primary Care Contract Manager remarked that all GP Practices were contractually obliged to have a PPG. The CCG did monitor Practices to ensure that they had the appropriate group. They visited Practices on a rolling programme as part of the contract review. During the process they asked for agendas and minutes of meetings to ensure compliance. Whilst the Primary Care Networks were quite new, they were already actively communicating with their patients.
The Director of Operations at the CCG remarked that there were six Primary Care Networks across the City. Four out of the six Primary Care Networks had responded to the survey and 19 out of the 40 GP Practices across the City. Most GP Practices communicated with patients by phone, their website, email, letters and text messages. The text messaging service and the screens in waiting rooms had been funded by the CCG. 11% of GP Practices had setup a virtual group, this was generally by email.
The Director of Operations remarked that the Chairs of each of the PPGs would meet in their relevant Primary Care Network (PCN) Group. 75% of PCNs used email, letters and their website to communicate. With reference to the survey question on how often PPGs met, close to 75% of PPGs met quarterly and all of the PCNs met quarterly. Meetings were held at the Practice or within easily walking distance of the Practices. The survey had determined that generally 6-10 people attended, sometimes less than 5 and occasionally there were groups which had more than 10 people attending meetings. The survey results had shown that the Practices were not happy with the overall representation of people attending meetings. In general PPG meetings did not attract young people. It was felt that this was probably because most meetings were held in the day time, when people were working.
The Director of Operations commented that one of the main issues raised at PPGs were appointments, which included availability and being able to contact the Practice on the telephone. The CCG had been assisting GP Practices by helping them introduce different methods for patients to be able to book appointments, which included online bookings and electronic systems via the telephone. They were also introducing video consultations to allow consultations to take place without the patient having to go into the GP Practice. Other issues which were often raised included DNA’s (Did Not Attend), Patient Surveys, logistics and prescriptions. Primary Care Network Groups often talked about general Practice related issues and the future of Primary care.
Some examples where PPGs had led to improvements were fundraising, changes and updates to buildings, open days and leaflets, training of reception staff, telephone issues, encouraging the use of patient online. The PCN Group’s had identified better patient communication, engagement events and marketing as areas which had improved since their existence.
In response to the question on whether any changes were planned for how PPG’s worked in Practices and worked together in PCNs, the Director of Operations commented that some Practices were considering the use of text messages, Saturday morning meetings or meeting at a different time, encouraging a younger age range, a stronger ethnic diversity of people to attend and setting up a virtual group. The PCNs had responded to say they were discussing representation and the location of meetings. It was clear from the results of the survey that Practices and PPGs were making good efforts to grow their membership and make patient involvement more inclusive.
The Director of Operations at the CCG gave the results to the question, “Do you share ideas and best practice with other PPGs / PCNs as follows: -
Per Practice:
53% No
47% Yes – through PCNs and the CCG
As a PCN Group:
50% No
50% Yes – through Practice Management and Board meetings – verbally and written
Therefore only about half of PPGs and PCNs were sharing good practice. He recommended that Practices should support the PPGs to grow their membership to better reflect their Practice population and increase attendance. His second recommendation was that PPGs should continue their beneficial work and share best practice within their PCN Grouping.
The Chairman asked if GP Practices were contractually obliged to serve a set amount of days’ notice to patients for meetings of the PPG and whether there was a requirement to display notices in the surgery and on their website publicising the upcoming meeting. The Primary Care Contracts Manager responded that where GP Practices had a very good operational PPG, the PPG would take on responsibility themselves for organising the meetings and advertising the meetings at the Practice and on the website. The CCG encouraged this, but they were aware that there were a lot of PPGs which could not support themselves and so they were reliant on the GP Practice for support. The Practices as a rule did give good notice of the dates, it was sometimes difficult to establish dates though as it required collaboration with the Chair of the Group. Meeting dates could also be advertised on prescriptions and sent out by text message. The contract with GP Practices did not contain any detail on the amount of notice that had to served for meetings of a PPG Group.
The Chairman commented that he was only given two days’ notice of a PPG meeting, with no agenda or minutes from the previous meeting. No room had been identified, with the meeting eventually taking place in a small consulting room. The date for the next meeting had not been identified and it was several months before the next meeting took place.
The GP Practice Manager for Probert Road Surgery remarked that at the last meeting of the year normally in November or December, the dates for the PPG Group at her GP Practice were all established for the following year. The dates were then displayed on the website and in a prominent point at the surgery by the front door. She invited any Councillor on the Panel to attend the forthcoming meeting of her PPG, which was taking place the following Thursday. Councillor Susan Roberts responded that she would attend the meeting.
There was a general discussion about the differences in quality of the PPG Groups across the 40 GP Practices in Wolverhampton. A Panel Member suggested there should be a minimum standard across all the PPG Groups. A Member of the Panel commented it was important to win the hearts and minds of GPs to obtain their full commitment to the PPG. The Chairman commented that the PPGs in the Bilston area required improvement.
The Chief Executive of the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust commented that before they started working with a GP Practice, they always visited the PPG for the Practice, as it was a good indicator of the quality of the Practice. He would also sometimes personally visit the PPG. Working with the PPG was an excellent way of improving services and the Trust had achieved a great deal through close collaboration. He understood that the CQC (Care Quality Commission) would be giving more priority to PPGs in their inspection work in the future and it would form part of their rating system.
A Panel Member asked for a briefing to be given to the Panel on the CQC. The Chief Executive of the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust offered to help arrange for the Regional Head of the CQC to speak to the Panel in the future. He could also ask them to describe how they trained their inspectors.
The Chairman thanked the CCG and the GP Practice Manager on behalf of the Panel for the evidence that they had submitted to the Panel and for them helping to facilitate the innovative approach of an online survey to obtain data for the Panel.
Resolved: The Health Scrutiny Panel recommends that:
A) Practices should support the PPGs to grow their membership to better reflect their Practice population and increase attendance.
B) PPGs should continue their beneficial work and share best practice within their PCN Grouping.