Council and councillors

To receive a joint presentation from the Clinical Commissioning Groups, Oakham Medical Practice, Lakeside Health Care Stamford and the Primary Care Network.  The presentation will include how the surgeries are currently operating and the progress made regarding the improvement plans.

A joint presentation was received from Rachna Vyas and Laura Norton from the Clinical Commissioning Groups, Dr Hilary Fox from the Primary Care Network and Dr Ryszard Bietzk and Dr Lucy Pearson from Oakham Medical Practice (copy attached).  During the discussion, the following points were noted:

·       Jane Narey confirmed that nobody was in attendance from Lakeside Health Care Stamford even though they had been formally requested to attend.  The Chair reported that she and the Committee were deeply disappointed by Lakeside Health Care’s refusal to attend a Scrutiny Committee meeting yet again.  The Chair has discussed this issue with the Monitoring Officer and has agreed that a formal letter would be sent to Lakeside Health Care Stamford on Monday, 29^th November 2021 to issue a Section 28 notification.

·       The Chair also reported that no representative was in attendance from Lincolnshire CCG but this was due to a serious health incident and apologies were accepted by the Chair.

·       Dr Pearson confirmed that the Same Day Team were trained to triage callers to allocate them to the most appropriate medical person and/or service and that blood tests could be booked 3 months in advance for those patients that required regular blood tests. All GPs could book a repeat appointment for a patient if they needed to have a follow-up appointment either face-to-face or telephone. 

·       She also informed the Committee that patients who did not turn up for their appointment, equated to one GP working 10hrs/day for six months with no breaks or holidays.  Laura Norton confirmed that she would discuss with the CCG about System One deleting appointments that have not been confirmed by the patient.

ACTION: Laura Norton

·       Councillor Waller stated that patients did not know what medical service they needed or what services the medical centre offered apart from that of a GP and that better communication was needed by GP services to educate the public on what services were available, how these services could be accessed and what other medical professionals e.g. physiotherapist, pharmacist etc were qualified to deal with them.  Laura Norton confirmed that this was a national issue and not just a Rutland issue but that an action plan was being drafted regarding better communication and accessibility.

·       Councillor Powell stated that booking an online appointment was confusing i.e. what classified as a ‘long condition’, what services were offered in a ‘nurse appointment’ rather than a ‘GP appointment’ etc. Dr Pearson stated that processes were tested by the patient group and were continuously reviewed.

·       Councillor Cross asked if the service could have extra staff answering phones?  Dr Pearson confirmed that all medical centre staff were allocated to their specific areas and that there were no resources to employ extra trained/qualified staff.  Dr Peason confirmed that GP services had changed due to the pandemic but needed to continue to change to provide services in the future. 

·       Dr Pearson confirmed that Oakham Medical Centre was fully staffed following months of determined recruitment.

·       Dr Underwood queried why the door at Oakham Medical Centre continued to be locked.  Dr Pearson stated that the centre’s waiting room was unsuitable for deep Covid cleansing but Laura Norton confirmed that the guidance had changed and she would raise this matter with the surgery.

ACTION: Laura Norton

--oOo---

At 21:29, it was unanimously agreed to extend the meeting

---oOo---

·       It was agreed that Rachna Vyas would contact Councillor Harvey to work with the Council and Oakham Medical Centre on better communication regarding services provided by the surgery.

ACTION: Rachna Vyas

·       Dr Fox confirmed that the Primary Care Network was undertaking active online training for staff to direct patients to online services. 

·       It was agreed that Councillor Harvey, Laura Norton and Rachna Vyas would discuss Empingham Surgery and the planning for future portacabins outside of the meeting.

ACTION: Councillor Harvey, Laura Norton & Rachna Vyas