Patient Representative Group Meeting Minutes – Thursday 17th February 2022

News extras

Thursday 17th February 2022

Bentham Medical Practice

Present: Lorraine Crossley –Close, Danny Conroy, Judith Nicol and Bronwen Osborne

  1. Apologies:

Jonathan Scott, Tony Hudson, Diane Faraday-Williams, Andrea Tuohy, Sandra Kay, Sue Gold and Jill Noble.

Jonathan gave his apologies as there was a water leak at the surgery which required his attention.

  1. Approval of the Minutes
    No minutes were produced at the last meeting.
  2. Matters Arising
    The PRG group needs more of a presence in local publications apart from the minutes. Perhaps publishing the practice Newsletter (Whatsup Doc) would increase the profile of the group.  Danny to ask Jonathan if this is appropriate and how often is it produced.  There was a discussion in the role of the PRG in current times especially with all the changes that will be introduced in the coming years.  It was felt that patients wanted care but were not really concerned with the politics and organisation of the region until it affected them.

    Items for the next agenda:

  • Where does the PRG stand with all the changes occurring e.g. new strategy for the hospitals, new strategy for the trust etc..?
  • What is the surgery doing to get equality for all the different areas/counties?

Lorraine suggested that we invite the chair of the Morecambe Bay Trust (Mike Thomas) to attend the next meeting and this meeting would be made public – probably April.

  1. Covid and Vaccination Update – Jonathan
    As Jonathan was not present this item was left until the next meeting.
  2. Surgery Update – Jonathan
    As Jonathan was not present this item was left until the next meeting.
  1. Lorraine’s Report
  • The Trust is currently heavily involved in patient safety and the quality of care after recent reviews. There have been a lot of recommendations and those recommendations are being met by the trust.  The role of the governors is to make sure that those recommendations are being reached and maintained. The people that did the reviews are coming back some time later this year.
  • There are still patients in hospital with Covid. Conditions for the staff and visitors are still the same.
  • Westmoreland General is having 2 new theatres.
  • The hospitals are still at 95% bed occupancy and last weekend this was 100%.
  1. MyGP/EMIS Prescriptions – Tony Hudson
    There was a short discussion on the MyGP app and what is possible but this will be placed on the next agenda for Tony to discuss.
  2. AOB

There was concern over the bus service to Ingleton will be cancelled and perhaps we need to send a letter to the appropriate company.

Next Meeting:  An email was sent to all members to find a suitable time for the next meeting which will be at the end of March/beginning of April.  The date would probably be April to allow the chair of Morecambe Bay Trust to attend.