ANNUAL REPORT FOR STOCKWELL GROUP PRACTICE PATIENT PARTICIPATION GROUP MARCH 2012

Lead GP: Dr. James BarnesLead Non-clinical staff member: Jenny Hoggins (Practice Manager)

Practice Demographics:

The practice is in the North of the Borough of Lambeth. There are 8.56 whole time equivalent doctors and 3 full-time practice nurses. The practice has 15.5 full-time administration staff including a full-time Practice Manager. The list size is currently 14,643. The area has a large percentage of Ethnic minority groups (38% Lambeth population with 12 % Black Afro-Caribbean 12% Black African and the largest Portuguese representation in the UK.) There is social and economic deprivation and there is a 23.5% transient practice population.

Aim of Patient Participation Group:

The Patient Participation Group was set up in August 2011. The aim of the group was:

o To give patients a voice in the running of the practiceo To provide a forum for discussion of health issues and about the practice

within the Communityo To encourage patients to become more involved with their own health care o To represent the population demographics in order to provide equality of care

How Patients Were Recruited?

This was actively promoted by:

1. Displaying a poster in the waiting room2. Advertising on our website3. Word of mouth from members of the Primary Health Care Team4. Targeting individuals suggested by Primary Health Care Team members and

inviting these to join the PPG, to ensure as many of the practice ethnic groups and ages were represented as possible.

Age/Gender/Ethnicity/Social background of Attendees:

It was important that as many sections of the population was represented. The breakdown of the group is:

AGE RANGE GENDER ETHNICITYBetween 41 & 81 9 (64.3%)women

5 (35.7%)men White British 6 (42.9%) Black Caribbean 4 (28.6.%) Black African 1 (7.1%) Ethnicity status refused (21.4%)

Originally persons of all ages and ethnicity were targeted by the practice (22 in total) only the above responded and engaged.

To engage with the local community 2 trustees from the Stockwell Park Estate Community Centre were invited to join the PPG and have attended.

The practice does not have look after specific groups e.g. care homes, disability centres, so these were not targeted.

Structure of Group:

It was agreed that Dr. Barnes would be the interim Chair until one of the patient’s felt confident to take on this role. Jenny Hoggins (Practice Manager) agreed to do the minutes.

Meetings:

Between August 2011 and March 2012 the Group met five times. The dates of the meetings were:

o 25th August 2011 (evening)o 22nd September 2011 (evening)o 20th October 2011 (evening)o 19th January 2012 (evening)o 24th March 2012 (Saturday morning)

Four of the meetings were held on a Thursday evening and one on a Saturday morning. Some patients were not happy to attend meetings in the evening due to safety issues at night in the surrounding area so it was suggested we held a meeting on Saturday to see if it increased attendances. We therefore responded by moving the meeting to Saturday morning. We will monitor attendance to see the effect.

The meetings are formal with an agenda and minutes taken which are sent to all attendees by post and email (if applicable) with a copy on the website (see PPG minutes web page).

At each meeting, a register is kept of all attendees and refreshments are provided. This is paid for by the Practice.

Issues Identified By The PPG As priority.

After the initial meeting it was agreed that we wanted to ensure the PPG was as representative as possible of the practice and that communication with patients who attended the surgery regularly and not so regularly was vital. In response to this a link to the PPG was added to the website and a dedicated notice board was put up in the waiting room. A general suggestion box already exists in the waiting room for suggestions.

After discussion with the PPG it was clear that people felt they did not know fully about local services that the practice and local area provided and that there was an issue in how this information was disseminated to the practice population. There was also a question raised about education and if people felt that the patients would like any specific educational sessions organised in the practice. It was thus felt that these issues would be covered by the practice questionnaire and were made initial priorities for the PPG.

Patient Questionnaire:

After lengthy discussions with the Group a patient questionnaire was devised looking at ways the practice could improve communication with patients regarding services that are offered both internally and externally. The questionnaire also enquired if the practice felt they would like to have particular sessions advertising

these services or educational sessions within the practice (see website PPG patient survey results 2011)

The questionnaire was also published in Portuguese to accommodate the increasing Portuguese population. (see website PPG patient survey results 2011)

The questionnaires were given out in the waiting room and were also available on the website; 110 were completed (107 in the waiting room and 3 on line).

Please see for result of survey (see website PPG patient survey results 2011)

The Way Forward:

The results of the questionnaire were discussed at the PPG meeting.

From the initial question is was clear that there was some need to advertise the services that exist as just under 45% of the population replied that they did not know what services existed. The question of best communication of this information then followed.From the results, the preferred communication system is the patient call screen. However, due to the limitations of the LED patient call screen this cannot be used alone. The use of the practice notice boards, already in place, was also popular. Furthermore a dedicated TV screen in the waiting room giving advice was popular. We have therefore discussed and agreed as an action plan in the PPG to have a LCD screen in the waiting room that would provide information/communication of some services provided at the practice. Information will however continue to be put on notice boards within the practice, the practice website and some notices attached to prescription.

Furthermore in response to the results and need to advertise local services clinics and amenities, an A4 guide to each has been devised as agreed in the PPG. This can be found on the notice board and can be given to patients to take away. There is also a link to this information on the web site. Our intention is to have this information translated into Portuguese (which is our main foreign language group) and also made available as above.

After discussion at the PPG of the second half of the survey results it was clear that there was not much call for the organisation of particular meetings to be organised to advertise services or for educational clinical sessions. It was agreed therefore not to peruse this further.

The results showed the questionnaire had been circulated to a good age range, covered most of the ethnic groups served by the practice and both sexes.

Action Plan:

After review on the questionnaire at the PPG the agreed action plan was therefore:

1. To organise a TV screen for the waiting room to communicate with the population more clearly and to advertise surgery and local services.

2. To develop information sheets regarding surgery and local services and to make these available within the surgery, on the notice board and on –line.

The next steps:

In response to the above action plan the surgery has organised for a TV screen run by The Community Network UK to be installed in the waiting room. This will show surgery services available, health messages and local advertisements. We have also designed and provided information sheets regarding surgery and local amenities and these are available in the waiting room and on line via the practice web site.

The PPG has been asked to nominate issues for the coming year agenda. We await their feedback. We will continue to discuss topics raised by the PPG at meetings as shown in the minutes.

28th March 2012