Below are the minutes of our latest PPG meeting, held on Wednesday 11th June at 6.30pm.
Attendees:
- Suzanna Van Shaik
- Shelagh Clarke
- Amanda Roberts
- Vicky Davison
- Laura Archer
- Irfan Malik
- Derek Huett
Suzanna chaired the meeting.
She started by stating that the next Hub would be held at the Indian Community Centre on Hucknall Road at 1-3pm on Friday 20th. We will be represented as usual.
There is also another Hub on the 1st of July which will cover women’s needs and issues.
We are still awaiting final confirmation of date and venue of our agreed meeting with Steve White, our PCN leader.
It is hoped to be at 3pm on Thursday 26th of this month in the Place Activity Centre, Sherwood. Suzanna and myself will be there early to set out the room.
Three other PPG’s have said they will attend.
Our PCN have intimated that they will not discuss finances. This is odd, given it is commonly believed that the PCN’s are in receipt of a lot of Government money.
We discussed the relationship between PPG’s and surgeries and agreed we were very lucky in that respect. Even within our group of surgeries there is some
disparity in the attitudes of the doctors and patients. We are fortunate that a doctor, usually Dr Malik, and Justina, our Practice Manager, normally attend every one of our meetings.
That interest and support is not at all common within the other surgeries in our PCN.
On the subject of staff, we are losing Louise, our Practice Nurse who is going back to District Nursing. Dr Malik explained the differences in the roles of Practice and District nurses.
He said we are currently looking to recruit to two Practice Nurses and explained that there was a shortage of both types of nurses within the NHS.
Fortunately we are able to offer a healthy rate of pay, so are confident we will soon be back to full strength.
When asked about chemists and inoculations, Dr Malik said the number of “jabs” carried out by the surgery had been falling.
We all agreed that we are fortunate to have chemists close to hand who provide an excellent inoculation service.
This being the case, it frees up a little more time for our doctors and surgeries to handle the more difficult issues we may bring to them.
That led into a lengthy discussion about pharmacies, hospitals and surgeries – their changing roles and the issues this raises.
That closed the meeting.