PENKRIDGE PATIENT LINK

CHAIR’S  ANNUAL REPORT for 2010

Welcome to the fourth annual open meeting of Penkridge Patient Link, our community’s patient participation group, working with Penkridge Medical Practice.

Along with the now familiar  pattern of approximately three monthly meetings, alternately with the doctors and on our own, 2010 saw the emergence of our developing role within South Staffs PCT, and the launch of the White Paper on GP Commissioning of NHS services.  Both will no doubt continue to impact on our work in  the year ahead.   Our discussions with the Practice ranged constructively over a wide variety of subjects, from patient non-attendance rates to doctors’ views on the White Paper, from the use of health trainers to the success of the new counselling support system, E.W.I.S.S.   In response to a request  from the doctors, we created a further leaflet on local activity groups as a resource for GP’s with their patients, and I must thank Sheila Finn for the tremendous amount of work she put in, to such good effect.

Our role as a consultative body for the PCT has had the most effect on our work this last year, involving as it does our representation on both the PCT  Patient Council and on Stafford and Surrounds Consortium’s Patient Participation Group.  Ruth Goodison and I continue to represent Patient Link on the latter, while Ruth is not only one of the Consortium’s representatives at PCT level, but due to her expertise in the field is the patient representative on the PCT’s Quality and Safety Committee.  (This incidentally has oversight of performance at Stafford Hospital, the on going inquiry into which has also formed part of the backdrop to our year.)  So – a lot of meetings, much paperwork and flying emails, and the need to report back as concisely as possible to our own group from these bodies.  Only they can tell us whether all this is of value to them!  It has however been heartening to learn about a number of health initiatives coming on stream within our area:  Emotional Wellbeing in Stafford and Surrounds (EWISS), Staying Healthy brief interventions Strategy, Obesity strategy and Health Trainers, the End of Life Pilot scheme, improvements to the Patient Transport Provision and others. 

During 2010 we received only a small number of comments via our box in the practice reception and have now agreed with the practice a system for a running report on these, together with comments on follow-up actions where relevant.  This will be displayed on our notice board and on our web pages.  As individuals though, we continue to receive feedback from patients,  some of which I would classify as niggles, others as a lack of understanding about reception/booking procedures, on an informal, meet in the village and chat basis; we are considering  how we might make better use of the information thus gleaned. 

However, on a variety of issues, as representatives of a large community of NHS users, we are increasingly being asked by the PCT : What do the people of Penkridge think?  Which raises two issues regarding the role of Patient Link.  Our original leaflet states:  Patient Link is an independent Patient Participation Group linked to the practice, whose purpose is to help improve communications between patients, their carers and the doctors and staff of the practice. …. [we are] keen to support the doctors and staff in making improvements in response to local needs.  However, this role is now expanding as the PCT and then its successor organisations look to practice based PPG’s as voices for their local communities on all aspects of NHS services.  We all know it has been hard enough seeking views and feedback on our own practice – our future role will be much more demanding.  Secondly, the ways in which the government’s proposed NHS restructuring, with its plans for consortia of G.P.’s to commission almost all services, will surely impact on our work in ways as yet unknown.  We had the opportunity to give our views on the proposals, and chose to do so via our M.P. Jeremy Lefroy’s consultative process.  Our response, which expressed misgivings about the extent of the reorganisation proposed whilst the NHS  simultaneously deals with budget cuts, will be tabled with this report, and on our website.  Whatever demands are made on us, we shall need support from ‘above’ if we are to be any sort of mouthpiece for our community.

And if we are to represent our community, we need to work harder at raising our profile and making ourselves better known.  I am grateful to Brian Marsh and Howard Stemp who are looking at a) updating and improving our website and b) other ways of raising our profile.

During the year we welcomed two new members, Andy Mayne and Brian Marsh, however Andy, along with Caroline Whalley, felt unable to commit the time and we are sad to see them go.  We need to make further efforts to recruit members from different backgrounds and age groups.

Finally,  a warm thank you to Ruth Goodison for another year’s valuable support as our hard working secretary, as well as to Barbara Boote and Kate Cartmel for their support with minute taking.  My thanks also to Doctors Grocott, Jones and Allen and to business partner Amanda Page, for their continued positive support and responses  to the issues and enquiries we raise.  And to all our members, thank you for your important contributions to our work, it is a pleasure to work with you all.   And may I encourage you all to take as much of an active role as you can, as we – and the NHS - face new challenges in the year ahead.

Amanda Parkyn

Chair

January 2011