Patient Participation Group

• Date: 26th February 2025
• Meeting held at: Strawberry Hill Medical Centre
• Present: Sabrina Mann (SM), Karen Swaffield (KS), Jane Belcher (JB), Janice Cook (JC), David Stock (DS), Jane-Marie Stock (JS), Joan Blore (JoB), Elizabeth O’Keeffe (EO), Mike Dunne (MD), Rachel Perris (RP)
• Apologies for the absence: Mike Fereday (MF), Maggie Bates (MB) Ros Quinn (RQ), Ramesh Kommi (RK), Dr Imogen Caffrey (IC), Gillian Evans (GE)

Voting and introduction of committee members

It was agreed by all present that all 14 nominees would be voted on to the organising committee.

Conflict of interests

None.

The list was updated.

Election of Chair and Secretary

Karen Swaffield (KS) said she was happy to continue as the Chair, Maggie Bates (MB) will continue as secretary with Jane-Marie Stock (JS) taking notes and writing up the minutes. KS will talk to Mike Fereday (MF) to see if he wishes to continue as vice chair.

Minutes of the last meeting

Matters arising from the last meeting.

• Kristie, the newly appointed deputy manager of SHMC, is settling well.
• A second phlebotomist being appointed has helped the alternate Saturday blood testing clinics. Each session available is full.
• There has been no joy in finding a pharmacy technician.
• Recycling blister packs. DS informed the group that both Boots shops now recycle empty blister packs. You are able to earn Boots Advantage points by using a QR code on the collection box. * See Appendix 1 for photos of boxes for instructions.
• It was suggested that we write to Boots to enquire about recycling used inhalers.
• JS reported that she had not had a response to her email to Lee Dillon, Newbury MP, about recycling blister packs and used DS JS Page 2 of 5 inhalers. EO asked JS to send her the email so that she could take it up with Mr. Dillon.
• IT workshop was not well attended. Those who came were ably assisted by the SHMC staff. Many thanks to the organising committee for attending and helping with teas, etc. We learned at the AGM that someone called Rav Gopal is at the Library on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays to support anyone who needs help with their NHS App. The minutes for the last meeting and the 2024 AGM were accepted and signed by KS.

Matters arising

AGM

The AGM went well. The invited speaker was Jayne Hipkiss, who gave us an informative talk about the u3a and what they do. The numbers of attendees outside the organising committee were a bit disappointing. The meeting was well advertised in the surgery and on social media. The minutes of the AGM, 2024 were accepted and signed.

Updates from the practice

SM reported the following items of interest:

• The surgery has employed 2 newly qualified GP’s, with extra funding. This equates to 1 day (2 sessions) and 2 days (2 sessions) which helps with cover for annual leave or sickness of the current GP staff.
• MD told us about a remote GP service that is available on a Saturday session. This service started during COVID. If a patient needs it, they can be booked in to see a doctor face to face on the following Monday.
• Admin staffing. One employee is retiring after being with SHMC for 25 years and another is leaving to move to another area. It has proven to be a struggle to recruit but 2 new members of staff have been employed for admin and reception roles. The workforce is steady in spite of some turnover of staff.

Support for surgery – Workshop?

SM brought a suggestion from the doctors that a leaflet drop to the new housing estates at Donnington Heights and Shaw Valley, near to Vodafone HQ, would be helpful as an introduction to the surgery. SM will get the leaflets printed. Leaflet drop date: 26th April, meet at SHMC at 10 am as many committee members as possible needed for this. A coffee morning was proposed, date tbc.

Patient Panel Report

MF absent so KS talked about the key point which was how the A34 practices worked together. The A34 Primary Care Network (PCN) is made up of SHMC, the Downland Practice and Eastfield House Surgery.SM already works with the other practices. Some very useful sharing of ideas has come out of the network, other aspects, like sharing medical care, has proved problematic. It was discussed as to whether members of the PPGs from each surgery should attend meetings, though this could be very time consuming for a few people and could get quite complicated. It was felt that the Chairs of each practice could possibly have more involvement to provide a patient perspective. It was felt that SM’s involvement and reporting back to our PPG meetings may be enough.

Website - is it now up to date?

SM is going to update the PPG page on the website.

AOB

• a) JoB shared a leaflet she had picked up in the Library which gave details of an NHS/West Berkshire Health Check. It was suggested that this information could appear on a “ Did you know…?” section of the Newsletter. *See Appendix 2 for more information from West Berkshire website about this service.
• b) SHMC do offer health checks for patients with chronic conditions at certain ages e.g. PSA (testing for prostate cancer), aorta and bowel.
• c) MD told us about PSA offered by The Lions Club, in return for a donation. He will write about this service for the newsletter.
• d) Men aged 50 or over can ask their GP for a PSA test even if they do not have symptoms.
• e) JC gave us some information about the “Respect form” which you fill in with your GP and is a plan for later life, including a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) request. Patients need to make an appointment to complete this and the information is flagged up for medical staff, such as paramedics. JB told us that this service is offered through the hospital and that there are forms available at the Patient Information Point (PIP) at the hospital. It was felt that this information could be made known at the practice or in the Newsletter.
• f) A frustration of the NHS app is that it is not possible to see all meds required on repeat prescriptions. It is possible, however, to see all of them through the SHMC website. g) A member talked about the £40 admin charges for letters from the surgery for patients needing them for applications to the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP). Some of these letters are for families who are already struggling financially. SM said the Social Prescriber, Terri, can be approached for help in signposting families, for example, to Housing for funding for these letters. h) DS suggested a “Good News” item on the agenda for every meeting in order to celebrate the many good things about SHMC. This way, staff will get positive feedback from the PPG. Eager to start this straight away, members gave the following positive feedback: 
• Ring back system works really well KS MD KS/SM MB will add this to the agenda Page 4 of 5
• The move away from Total Triage has been positive
• There is no need for everyone to phone at 8 a.m. as appointments are released throughout the day – this really needs to be promoted in the Newsletter or in the surgery
• Patient care advisers (PCAs) are all very good on the phone and in person
• Use of the NHS physio service is very good and the self-referral system is going well
• It was noted how lucky we are at SHMC to have so many full time doctors
• SM has seamlessly taken over the role of Practice Manager

Future Meeting Updates

• The meeting finished at 6.40pm.
• Wednesday 14th May 2025, 5.15pm at the surgery

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

West Berkshire Magazine - Spring / Summer 2024

• Date: 21st February 2024
• Meeting held at: Strawberry Hill Medical Centre and on MS Teams and via phone conference (audio only)
• Present: Karen Swaffield (KS), Louisa Walker (LW), Maggie Bates (MB), Jane Belcher (JB), Dr Imogen Caffrey (IC), Janice Cook (JC), David Stock (DS), Jane-Marie Stock (JS), Ros Quinn (RQ), Joan Blore (JoB), Cath Walsh (CW), Christine Wolstenholme (ChW), Nalini Mistry (NM), Mike Fereday (MF)
• Apologies for the absence: No apologies received.

Chair's Report

KS opened her report by explaining that the Patient Participation Group (PPG) was formed 7 years ago, a year after the opening of SHMC, and that any registered patient of the practice was eligible to be a part of the group. This can be as a member of the 12 strong organising committee or as a member of the virtual group. The virtual group is for patients who may not want/are not able to attend meetings in person. They receive newsletters and invitations to contribute to group activities online. The PPG would like to recruit members from a cross section of our community to take part but this has proved difficult to achieve.

The PPG is a voice for patients and it is an opportunity to feedback to the surgery. KS updated surgery developments. There have been some challenges this year with staff recruitment, staffing at the pharmacy and supply of medications. The PPG have produced 3 informative newsletters and the latest one was dropped off to the new estates at Shaw/Donnington as SHMC is their local surgery.

The surgery has regular inspections form the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the last full inspection was in May 2019. They judged SHMC to be ‘Good’ overall, with ‘Outstanding’ for being ‘well led’.

The surgery has over 22,000 patients registered. The make-up of this number is mainly white British with a small percentage of other minorities.

The biggest change at the surgery is the change in systems from ‘Total Triage’ to ‘Care Navigation System’. This means that patients can have same day appointments for urgent needs and within 2 weeks for a non—urgent appointment. The appointment can be a phone call, a video call or a face-toface. There were problems at the beginning but patients are finding it a better system as it means you get an appointment more easily. Currently, the surgery is fully staffed with 25 clinical staff.

SHMC is part of the A34 Primary Care Network (PCN) along with Eastfield House and the Downland Practice. The 3 surgeries are able to share some services.

Saturday 10th February. NHS app workshop. The practice held a successful workshop to assist patients who own mobile phones but who have not yet downloaded the NHS app. There was a very good response to the workshop. The PPG assisted with refreshments and were on hand to assist with the workshop and to chat about our role at the practice

Speaker – Steve McManus CEO of the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust

Steve McManus, CEO of Royal Berkshire Hospital (RBH) NHS Foundation Trust was our guest speaker and he gave us a comprehensive and very informative update on the hospitals.

Steve has been CEO since 2017; between then and now he was seconded to the Test and Trace Service and in October 2022 to July 2023 as CEO of Oxon, Bucks and Berkshire West NHS trust; he is now back in place as CEO of RBH.

The RBH is a community based trust covering Berkshire West and South Oxfordshire hospitals: West Berkshire Community Hospital, RBH, Windsor, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Bracknell and Henley. This is an area of approximately 600,000 people who have had over a million interactions during the year across the range of services within the trust. The budget for the trust is £0.5 billion of public funds which includes spending on education, training and research.

He outlined the 5 long term objectives of the trust:

• High quality care
• Deliver in Partnership
• Investment in staff and live out the values
• Cultivate innovation and improvement
• Achieve long term sustainability

The trust’s partnership with the University of Reading provides post graduate medical training with 2 nursing schools and Physician Associate training being delivered there. The university’s Health Innovation Partnership has led to improved patient care and accreditation for services for quality, education and research.

Recent achievements:

• A £6 million Rapid Response lab
• Well-being of the 5600 staff – RBH was in the top 5 organisations voted for by staff
• Martha’s Rule was launched today (21st Feb)
• De-carbonisation on site

Challenges and opportunities faced by the Trust:

• A huge increase for emergency and urgent demand services in the last 2-3 years
• Waiting lists – examples of reasons for this: 20% increase in cancer referrals since the pandemic, disruption caused by the industrial action. He also noted areas of progress where there was evidence of reduction in wait time
• Health inequalities. Steve talked about “Meet PEET” (Patient Experience Engagement Team) whose focus was on engaging and listening to seldom heard groups in our community
• Retention and recruitment. There has been a focus on staff well-being which has led to staff stability and national recognition of this

Strategic Partners:

• Digital records will replace paper records and this will help services to interact with each other
• Public Health for Berkshire
• University of Reading

Integrated Care System BOB ICB:

• This stands for Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire & West Berkshire (BOB) Integrated Care Board (ICB)
• The 3 ‘acute’ hospitals work together as health and social care partners to reduce waiting lists and economise by buying goods for all 3 hospitals

Building Berkshire Together:

• 2019 RBH was adopted on to the New Hospital Programme
• 2020 The Strategic Outline Case was put forward and options for on and off the current site were considered. The most favourable
• outcome - a new hospital on a new site
• 2031 funding available for construction to start onsite
• Currently the funding is not enough to cover cost either onsite or offsite
• Current site has limitations due to being ‘land locked’

To summarise:

• Funding allocation has not yet been finalised
• 2 viable sites at Wokingham are being investigated for ‘due diligence’
• Patient requirements are still being explored. There is a “have your say survey” on the Building Berkshire Together website.

West Berkshire Community Hospital:

• New services have been developed – cancer care, renal and endoscopy
• Long term ambition is for all services to be delivered at WBCH

Q & A

1. A question was raised about the role of Physician Associates (PA) and whether more PA’s will be employed in the NHS in the future.

Steve explained what the training was for PA’s: a 2 year post graduate programme (available at University of Reading/RBH). In situ, PA’s are part of a multi-disciplinary team they work with supervision from doctors and play an important part in sharing the workload. Steve felt that the media and social media had an unhealthy and unhelpful campaign against PA’s. He went on to say there are not enough doctors and training and employing PA’s was a way to deal with the increased workload.

2. Is there a valid career pathway for PA’s?

Steve told us that the first cohort of PA’s was trained 2015-2017, at RBH. There is continual training and for the more experienced PA’s there are opportunities to take a pathway to medical training and qualifications. Dr Imogen Caffrey explained that there are 5 PA’s at SHMC. They were very useful and were definitely not a cheaper option. She explained the protocols in place at SHMC; a senior doctor goes through what the PA has done. Steve added that at the RBH the PA works in a supervised environment within their scope of practice. They are supervised by consultants and line managers.

There is a procedure in place should a patient be unhappy with the PA and a consultant is always involved in every case.

3. A third question was about the communication, or rather, lack of it, between hospitals e.g. results of blood tests and x-rays that cannot be shared.

Steve agreed that unfortunately, this was the case; it was as a result of different trusts using non-compatible electronic systems and some paper systems still being in place. It takes time for information to be digitalised. Although it is presently throwing up challenges, it was hoped that this could be something that could change by using a ‘Connected Care Platform’ in the future.

Dr Caffrey said that individuals can access their own test results via the NHS app. Another member of the audience told us of her recent experience of lack of communication between hospitals. Steve reiterated the use of the NHS app and agreed that there was still work to be done on improving communication. He explained that the NHS had been allowed to develop their own system which has ended up with a ‘patchwork’ effect.

4. Why has the main ENT department being moved to Henley? This makes attendance from Newbury difficult.

Steve said that, unfortunately, the RBH accommodation for ENT was substandard and could no longer be used. Henley Townlands hospital had space available and was therefore the best option.

5. Why do Specsavers no longer offer NHS audiology? WBCH is unable to cope with the larger numbers.

Dr Caffrey explained that Specsavers had ended the contract.

6. How will the new hospital meet the needs of the population in the future?

Steve explained that there are surveys in place about this and that younger people, in particular, were being asked about what they may want in the future. He agreed it was very difficult to project about future needs. He told us there are 3 hospitals in the area being re-developed – Frimley (which has become an urgent project because of RAAC), Basingstoke and RBH.

7. Is Steve confident that work will start in 2031? (Audience laughter!)

Steve’s answer was that the project team was being as prepared as possible but with a general election on the horizon, things might change. He assured us that whatever could be controlled was being controlled in order to keep informed and moving forward. He said that more information about the viability of the new site or re-development of the old site over the next 5-10 years will be available when a geo survey is carried out later this year.

8. What about the impact for patients from Newbury if the RBH moves out of Reading?

Steve said that looking at transport links would be part of the process. Also, looking at how WBCH could be developed to offer an all-encompassing range of services.

9. A member mentioned that ‘Building Berkshire Together’ had a stand at WBCH on Monday 26th February 9pm to 2pm for anyone interested.

Steve was thanked for his attendance at the meeting and for such an informative and interesting talk.

Nominations received

All nominations received will be part of the next PPG organising committee.

Election of the organising committee

Nominees will be invited to the next meeting of the PPG.

Date of the first PPG organising committee meeting

Thursday 28th February 2024, 5pm at SHMC