PPG: Latest Minutes

• Date: Thursday 5th March 2025
• Time: 6:00pm to 7:30pm
• Location: MS Teams
• Chair: Gita Aminpour
• Note taker: Paul Towey

Attendees / Apologies

Attendees

• Gita Aminpour (Chair) - GA
• Dr Barbara Bull (Senior GP Partner) - BB
• Paul Towey (Practice Manager) - PT
• Anthony Wallis – AW
• Richard Cook - RC
• Ann Muston - AM
• Julian Stanley – JS

1. Welcome introductions and apologies

• No apologies given

2. Minutes of previous meeting and update on actions

• The minutes of the meeting were approved as an accurate record of the last meeting.
• Update on actions from previous meeting:
  • Action: PT to organise a staff appreciation event for early next year.
    • Update: Organised for Wed 18th March 2026 5:30 pm. Gita will present a summary of the PPG role to new staff members and committee will coordinate the provision of refreshments.
  • Action: PT propose possible dates for the first patient engagement session.
    • Update: Dates were not decided upon. Before doing so it was considered important to discuss what requirements need to be in place in order for PPG members and patients to feel safe in such circumstances. Discussions were had about security checks on PPG staff such as DBS checks, the need for PPG members to sign confidentiality agreements or attend training and the importance of knowing what they could discuss eg they should refrain from discussing personal information or dealing with specific complaints. JS suggested the ICB probably has standardised template for PPG codes of conduct and confidentiality.
  • Action: PT and BB to review what was required in order for PPG members to speak to patients safely and would refer to the ICB as required.
  • Action: PT to contact previous PPG chairs to identify and confirm the status of these funds.
    • Update: Previous chair informs that all funds have been spent and accounted for.
  • Action: Once approved, PT to upload PPG minutes to the practice website.
    • Update: Completed.
  • Action: PT to review the PPG webpage and update member photographs as needed.
    • Update: Completed
  • Action: PT to check whether the next meeting can start earlier.
    • Update: Was agreed that the meeting could start at 6pm.

3. Practice update

• No changes of staff at the practice.
• The practice now has an anonymous feedback form on its website so patients can post feedback on the practice performance or anything they think is important. The practice normally receives little feedback from patients except through comments as part of friends and family test responses.
• The practice is looking into introducing an AI receptionist system. The main reason for this is that sometimes around a few days a month sometimes a week the number of reception staff can be lower than what the practice would want. This can happen because of sickness or emergency leave. The practice cannot employ an extra person to work a few days a month in order to fill this gap in staffing so they feel an AI receptionist can help.
• The plan is that when patients call, they will be offered an AI receptionist or a human one. If they choose the AI receptionist, they can immediately converse with them (on waiting in a phone queue) regarding what they need and the AI receptionist at the same time can fill in an online medical request for them if required. PPG members thought this could be helpful especially for those patients who find it difficult to do this. The AI receptionist would automatically transfer the patient to a human receptionist if the patient requested it or they displayed a number of “frustration” cues ie unhappy with the service they were getting. The script of the AI receptionist is completely configurable, and the idea would be to work with the PPG team to improve this script and the service overall over time.
• Clinical AI tools, specifically Heidi AI which transcribes notes for GPs who then look them over and amend as required, are already showing significant benefits in patient consultations, BB noted she utilises the tool in nearly all of her consultations, and it allows for improved focus on the patient rather than manual note-taking as was required previously.

4. Patient experience and feedback

• The Friends and Family test results were discussed
• The Friends and Family Test (FFT) results indicate a high level of patient satisfaction, with the practice maintaining an average score of 95% over the last eight months.
• The practice received 575 positive comments during this period, many regarding staff attitude and professional care.
• Negative feedback primarily centres around the cancellation of nurse and Healthcare Assistant (HCA) appointments at last minute due to staff illness.
• It was noted that nursing and HCA staff can have disabilities or caring commitments which means last minute absence can happen and it is difficult to exclude this.
• For those whose blood test was cancelled at the last minute it was noted that there may be opportunity for them to have the bloods taken nearby using the Park and Ride service. They would only need to pick up paperwork from the surgery to do so.

Action: PT to investigate if bloods can be taken elsewhere on the same day when a nurse or HCA calls in sick

5. Communications and engagement

• Covid vaccinations are estimated to start at the practice on 18th April 2026

6 PPG-led items / patient issues

• It was noted that management of patient expectations regarding blood results using the MyChart app could be helpful
• BB noted here is often a lag of several days between a patient seeing results on MyChart and a clinician reviewing them so patients should understand they may be requested to discuss blood test results a few days later.
• Nonetheless patients can see their results quickly and the practice will instruct HCA and nursing teams to inform patients of this delay to reduce anxiety and unnecessary enquiries.

7. Service improvement / co-production topic

• All agreed to focus on providing feedback to improve the AI receptionist service when it went live.

8. PCN / community / local updates

• AM gave update on local updates and will provide an update through an email if required which PT will distribute
• AM provided updates from Healthwatch and the CPCPG regarding national medication shortages, specifically for ADHD treatments.
• AM also mentioned a new recycling initiative for medicine blister packs is being explored following a successful implementation at the Girton pharmacy.

9. Date / time of next meeting

• The next PPG meeting is confirmed for June 25th, 2026, at 6:00 PM.