Ightenhill Medical Centre

Tabor Street | Burnley | BB12 0HL

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August 2013

Present:

  • Tracy Williams-Walsh
  • Carol Ratcliffe
  • Amanda Bellas
  • Group Members

Apologies:

  • Mr and Mrs Carter
  • Val Watson
  • Clifford Sutcliffe

The meeting started at 5.00pm and light refreshments were provided.

  1. The minutes of the last meeting were read and accepted and there were several matters arising:

The Practice Newsletter had been produced, however, not many patients took one. It was decided to try one more and physically give them out with prescriptions and when patients came for their appointments.

The new reception staff had been on a “Customer Care “course and they had learned a lot of new skills. This of course is ongoing and the group were asked to monitor the progress and let us know if there were any issues which they noted

  1. The new member of the group was welcomed and it was noted that one member of the team who had been ill was back and also his wife. It was good to have them back with us
  2. CQC Update was discussed, but as the inspection had not yet happened it was decided to wait until it had.
  3. Dr Iqbal had asked that we discussed the possibility of forming a “Friends of Ightenhill Practice”. All group members had been asked to think about this before the meeting and come with comments and ideas.

There was much discussion around the topic. The reasons were thought about and the practical matters were also discussed. Several questions which need answering were asked.

  • What is the aim?
  • Why do we need this?
  • Who else is doing this?
  • Will it work here?
  • What are we trying to buy with any money or is there a specific item we need?

There was a lot of talking about all these points and it was thought unfortunate that one of our members was not present as we knew she had had several thoughts and ideas. It was hoped that she would be able to be at the next meeting.  We all felt that unless we had an aim to buy something special like a piece of equipment that would perhaps mean that patients need not attend the hospital for treatment but have it here it would be difficult. Very few people had responded to the invitation to this group, so it would be difficult to raise interest in this idea. It was decided to speak to Dr Iqbal and have more thoughts ready for the next meeting.  Amanda suggested that we might have a Christmas raffle each year, but we would need a lot of those!  It was very obvious that everyone thought that any money raised must be for a specific purchase and not just put into the general funds.

  1. AOB

We discussed the fact that many people still do not use the website, and the group were asked to try to promote this as it was up to date and there was a lot of information on it.

Marie wondered if we should use up to date technology more to attract younger members to the group. Tracy said that text messaging was now in place for appointment reminders and the practice was looking at internet booking of appointments.

It was asked that we ask for all mobile phones to be switched off or put on silent when patients are in the practice. It was also discussed that staff should not be using their phoned whilst working. Tracy was to arrange these things.

Next meeting

The next meeting will be in November and a date will be sent out nearer the time.

The meeting closed at 18.10.

Post Script

The day after the meeting Val brought in her thoughts as she had been unable to attend the meeting. She more or less agreed with what we had already discussed.

The questions she had were:

  • Are there any other groups like this round here/
  • What services are to be improved?
  • How will our image be improved?
  • How limited is central funding?
  • What is it that we need to do?
  • Has an audit been carried out on current expenditure to determine if savings could be made?
  • Need to be specific as to what exactly any money is raised for and the cost of that item?
  • Would any monies raised have to be sent to an authority and then claimed back to purchase what is needed?

Val knew that there is a group at Trawden surgery and several items of equipment have been purchased in the last 12months. Perhaps we need to talk to them about how they started. Another surgery has adverts on their website and she wondered whether they get revenue from that.

Note from Tracy and Carol

It is obvious that a lot of work needs to be done on this subject along with Dr Iqbal before the next meeting.  If anyone has any ideas please do not hesitate to contact us.