July 23, 2025
Agenda
FRIENDS OF THE FAMILY PRACTICE
Meeting on 23 July 2025 at St Johns Health Centre
0900 – 1030 hrs
AGENDA
1 Apologies for Absence
2. Minutes of Meeting held on 23 April 2025
3. Matters arising (not covered by a specific agenda item)
a) Item 3
Conversion of room for clinical and consultation use.
Current situation.
4. Health Centre Update.
a) Details of any operational or procedural changes.
b) Information in relation to any staff changes/vacancies.
5. Future Projects
Any developments on suggestions contained in discussions outlined under Item 5 of the minutes of the previous meeting?
6. Any Other Business.
7. Date/time of next meeting
Mike Rudd (Chair)
Minutes
FRIENDS OF THE FAMILY PRACTICE
Minutes of meeting on 23 July 2025
Present: Mike Rudd (Chair), Hilary Gower, Malcolm Jefferies, Lynn McGrady (Sec), Sandra Shaw, Nicky Yates, Dr Sekhon, Jill Keen (Practice Manager)
1. Apologies for Absence
Apologies were received from Graham Cundy and Jane Daborn.
2. Minutes of the last meeting held on 23 April 2025
The minutes were agreed.
3. Matters arising
No further progress has been made in bringing a large room previously used to store paper records into clinical use. However, it is not needed at the present time and the work will be undertaken at a later date.
Jill will ensure the latest minutes of this group are put on the noticeboard.
4. Health Centre Update
a) Operational or Procedural Changes
Blood tests initiated by GPs in the Practice can be carried out in the surgery. However, patients with blood test requests from hospitals must have these undertaken at the hospital. This is considered necessary to ensure the medical practitioner requesting the blood tests is the one that subsequently interprets the results. Recent changes to IT processes made by hospitals also makes the processing of blood tests more complex for GPs’ surgeries. Blood tests requested by all local hospitals, including Woking Community Hospital, can be booked online via the Swiftqueue system. There are separate arrangements in place for the small number of patients attending London teaching hospitals.
b) Staff Changes / Vacancies
Two new members of staff will join the Practice soon – one in the Admin team and one in Reception when Jackie retires. There is a full complement of GPs as Dr Roux is now undertaking 3 sessions a week. Patients can make appointments with Harry the Practice Pharmacist if they wish to discuss their medication.
5. Future Projects
At the last meeting the group considered areas for future projects – having previously highlighted to policy makers the unacceptable ambulance waiting times and the transport difficulties resulting from the transfer of some medical specialties from St Peter’s to Ashford Hospital. It was proposed that the issue of how to communicate to patients should be considered. At this meeting, discussions centred around further communicating the new process for booking appointments and learning from other local surgeries’ communication procedures.
Booking process for appointments: Appointments at the Practice have now moved on line although patients unable to access the system can speak to Reception staff who will complete the forms on their behalf. The NHS website isn’t helpful as it implies appointments can be booked online – which isn’t the case. Dr Sekhon mentioned that patients who use the website prefer the new system as this avoids phone calls and the 8am queue. Once online forms are received, triage staff can also arrange blood tests and appointments with nurses and the pharmacist or patients can be signposted to the Walk-In-Centre if necessary when GP appointments aren’t available. In response to comments that it can take a considerable time to get through to the surgery on the phone Jill mentioned that the number of phone calls is now reducing as people get used to the new system. During the meeting she phoned the appointments line and got through very quickly. Some members wondered whether a training session would be useful for patients during this transition phase.
Patient communication by other local GP surgeries: At the last meeting, Malcolm agreed to research the approaches taken by other local surgeries to communicate with patients. He has now provided the group with a comprehensive summary of the methods used by 15 other GP Practices and their PPGs. This shows, among other things:
· All but one surgery had mentioned the PPG on its website but minutes of meetings were available on only three sites.
· Two surgeries had produced newsletters, one of which provided information about the covid booster programme, a local pharmacy, staffing updates and tips on how to stay well. It also mentioned the PPG and specifically asked for feedback with a link to the Friends & Family test.
This information initiated some discussion and some differing views within the group including:
· Are patients aware that each GP surgery has a Patient Participation Group (PPG)? Do they need to be aware since any concerns can be directed to staff? It was noted that although each surgery must have a PPG, there has been very little government guidance issued on their role for several years.
· This group is looking to help the Practice move forward and improve the experience for patients. However, an alternative view suggests that since recent surveys are showing increasing confidence in the surgery, is doing anything extra warranted or merely rocking the boat?
· Should elderly and vulnerable patients be expected to use online forms or apps and therefore trained to do so - or is it unreasonable to request this from many patients?
· It was noted that attendance by PPG members at the flu & covid vaccination clinics was very helpful.
Malcolm was thanked for the research he has undertaken on behalf of the group and members will consider it further and return with suggestions at the next meeting.
6. Any Other Business
There were no further areas for discussion.
7. Date of Next Meeting
The next meeting is scheduled for 9am on Wednesday 22 October 2025.
.