Agenda

No

Note

1

Welcome and Introductions

Chair, Eddy Shallcross, welcomed everyone to the meeting.  It was explained that, due to this meeting coinciding with a consultation event for vascular surgery proposals, we had been advised the previous day that Gary Doherty would now be unable to attend.  However, two colleagues from Wirral University Teaching Hospital would be attending in order to answer questions in relation to the vascular proposal.

2

Minutes from last meeting

The minutes taken at the last meeting of the Wirral GPCC Patient Council, held on 22^nd November 2011, were agreed as a true and accurate record.

It was requested that Keith Heller’s name is added to the apologies list for the minutes of the Patient Council Executive Board from the 7^th December 2011.

3

Matters arising

Contract Monitoring – A question was raised as to what is involved in contract monitoring process.  It was explained that a monthly meeting is held between the commissioners and the providers of the four main contracts – Wirral University Teaching Hospital, Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology, Wirral Community Trust and Cheshire and Wirral Partnership Trust – in order to monitor their performance against their contracts, including review of key performance indicators, complaints, incidents, patient experience reports and quality issues.  These meetings are not open to the public or patients, but GP Practice representatives attend to represent the interest of the Consortium’s patient populations  It was clarified that this is different from an inspection of these providers.

It was suggested that any patients experiencing issues with any of the providers should raise these either through the PCT Have Your Say route, or through the provider’s own mechanism – ie PALS at Arrowe Park Hospital.

Action – Christine to promote this to practices and ensure that this features on the Consortium website.

Admissions Prevention service – it was clarified that Maggie Johnson will be attending the following meeting of the Patient Council, on the 27^th March, in order to discuss this service.

4

Consortium Engagement Strategy

Dr Mantgani and Christine explained the progress that had been made since the last meeting:

-          we have started to design a joint newsletter that will feature both news from the patient’s GP practice, and from the Consortium, and which will be sent to all head of households, in order to give key messages and provide ways for patients to get involved.

-          The website will be launched in February and will feature a section for patient council and ‘virtual’ council members – giving patients the opportunity to give their e-mail addresses to find out more information, and to take part in Consortium consultations and commissioning activities

-          Currently most GP Practices have a ‘Life Channel’ system, which enables messages to be played through video in the practice waiting room.  We are exploring a different system with another company which will enable the Consortium and the practice to have full control over the messages that are played, and make it much more tailored to our own campaigns, without advertising.

-          Christine is due to attend the Practice Manager Forum on the 1^st February to seek their support in publishing Consortium news on their websites, and in sending information through patient e-mail addresses that they’ve collected.

-          We will be shortly be launching the first draft of our operational commissioning plan for 2012/13, indicating the areas that we’ll be focussing on throughout the year.  This will enable us to develop a communications and engagement strategy that will mean we can involve and inform patients more proactively, and at every stage of the commissioning cycle.  It will also enable us to prepare campaigns and publicity in advance of what we are planning to do, rather than after the event – such as advertising for the Choose Well campaign and Minor Injuries service

It was clarified that the Executive Board has approved a pilot for the Minor Injuries service at Miriam MC to open over the weekend, in order to increase access to families, increase capacity to reduce waiting times, and reduce the pressure on Accident and Emergency departments over the weekend.  It was commented that there should be as many of these sites as possible, as patients are more likely to attend if there is one on their doorstep.  It was explained that this has always been a priority for the Consortium, and agreed that the best way to ensure appropriate use of A&E is to publicise and promote alternative services.

Key suggestions made by the group were as follows:

-          message needs to be relayed to GP Practice patient groups about the impending campaign around Minor Injuries services to ensure that this fits in with any work being undertaken around the Choose Well campaign

-          communications should be electronic wherever possible to ensure that messages reach the younger generation in particular

-          we should work with our GP Practices to support them in collecting patient e-mail addresses, which could then be used to issue communications on a wider scale than we do currently

-          GP Practice websites should have a patient engagement section, highlighting who the patient representative is, in order that patients know how to share their views and also the approach that the practice is taking to involve their patients

-          newsletters from practices could feature a ‘message of the month’ that could be targeted at some of the harder to reach groups, such as health messages that will be pertinent to the teenage population, or to new mums, for instance.

5

Review of vascular services

Dr Mantgani gave an overview of the proposal for vascular surgery, full details of which can be found at the following site:

http://www.vascularconsultation.org.uk/#

A formal twelve-week period of public consultation is being held by the commissioners (including this Consortium) in order to seek patients’ views.  This started on the 23^rd January, and further details are available on the above site, including dates of consultation events and ways to get in touch.

David Rowlands (Medical Director) and Sue Green (Director of HR and Strategic Planning), both at Wirral Hospital Trust, attended in order to give further information and to answer patients’ questions.  The main points raised were:

-          the proposal is to move very specialist vascular surgery cases from the Arrowe Park site to the Countess of Chester site.  Currently around 200 of these cases per year are done at Arrowe Park.

-          This is a result of a national drive to create centres of excellence – the evidence suggests that if you have a specialist site, with fewer individuals each doing a higher number of procedures, the patient outcomes will be better (ie a lower complication rate and higher survival rate).  The Trusts within the Cheshire and Mersey region were required to come up with proposals as to how to achieve the balance between ensuring better outcomes and maximising safety whilst minimising the inconvenience for patients.  This joint proposal from Wirral Hospital Trust and Countess of Chester was the one that has been supported by commissioners for the south of the Mersey region.

-          The same surgeons will be doing the procedures, but will be rotating between both sites, so it will not lead to some surgeons losing their skills.  This already happens currently.

-          This only applies to the surgery element of the patient journey – the initial appointments, the review and the follow-up will be done in Arrowe Park if the patient prefers, or even closer to home if this is possible.  The Trust will be committed to only keeping patients in Chester for as long as appropriate following surgery.

-          Transport will be a major consideration during implementation of proposals, in order to ensure there are sufficient means for both patients getting to their surgery, and for families and carers without cars to visit.

-          Patients will still have a choice, so if they do not want to go to Chester, Royal Liverpool and other specialist centres will still be available

-          This is not decommissioning, it is just changing the location of a service to ensure better outcomes for patients

-          The joint bid submitted by Wirral Hospital Trust and Countess of Chester was supported by the Consortia locally and by the Primary Care Trust, and a period of consultation has already been carried out.  However, as there has not been unanimous support, there is now a further period of public consultation to provide assurance that this is in the best interest of local patients.

-          The group agreed that there needs to be much more proactive marketing around the aims of this proposal, as currently patients’ understanding is based what is reported in the press, which is that the majority of vascular services are moving to Chester.  The message needs to be relayed to the public that it’s actually only a very small and specialist section of the patient journey. 

-          Dr Mantgani explained that a national screening programme to detect Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms will be rolled out later in 2012/13, with the aim of identifying and treating patients before they get to the stage where vascular surgery is even required.

A vote was taken of the patient group and 100% of those in attendance were in support of the proposals.  Patients were encouraged to feed these views into the formal consultation, and it was agreed that the outcome of the vote would be shared with practice patient groups.

6

Any Other Business

It was raised that there had been an interview held with the local MP and Radio Merseyside around waiting times at Wirral Hospital Trust.  It was explained that the Trust had had difficulty in meeting referral to treatment, and Accident and Emergency, targets  There has been intense investment made so that these targets will be met and patients will not have to wait any longer than necessary.

An issue around waiting times for cataract surgery was raised, along with inadequate instructions given with, and packaging of, medication necessary following this surgery.  The patient was asked to raise this with the Trust, but it was agreed that this would be raised through the contract monitoring process as well.  It is imperative that any provider ensures the patient fully understands their course of medication, and is able to access it, prior to discharge.

A positive experience of the Minor Injuries service at Parkfield Medical Centre in New Ferry was shared.

7

Date and Time of Next Meeting

The next meeting will be held on Tuesday 27^th March 2012, Nightingale Room, Old Market House, CH41 5FL, 6.30pm.