07-12-13 Carradale Surgery Patient Group
AGM 23 November 2013.
Minutes of Carradale Surgery Patient Group AGM
Saturday 23rd November 2013 at 10.30am
1. Apologies for absence
These were received from Val Cannell and Stuart Irvine.
2. Minutes of last AGM
These were read and approved - Proposed by M Gemmill, seconded by E Black
3. Matters arising from minutes
Plans have been abandoned to establish a community health group (C3) as outlined at last year’s AGM by C Forbes.
4. Financial Report
The accounts for the previous year were presented showing the income as £850.40 from fund raising, £200 donations, £500 from EKWFT and £0.66 interest, expenditure was £1000 to the Red Cross for transport, leaving a current balance of £1935.23. £500 of this amount is ring-fenced for medical equipment purchases. Adoption of the accounts was proposed by J Blount, seconded R Elder.
5. Patient Transport
The situation regarding ensuring continuity of Red Cross transport remains unchanged. It was agreed that the secretary should write again to the Red Cross with a letter of support for their application for funding from the council for next year and copy the letter to both East Kintyre Community Council and Argyll & Bute Council
About a year ago changes to the NHS Patient Transport Scheme were implemented which meant eligible patients or their representatives must phone a centralised number themselves to make arrangements. V Cannell was collating a dossier of any problems patients were experiencing with this but it is not known how this is progressing.
6. Charity Fundraising
The practice has again supported the “wear it pink” breast cancer campaign, raising £105 this year. It was agreed the practice would again raffle a Christmas hamper with funds raised going to Red Cross transport. Donations of items for this would be welcomed in early December. The sponsored walk, despite the dreadful weather raised £683 this year.
7. Equipment
The practice has purchased a Coaguchek machine which performs an INR blood test for patients who require warfarin therapy due to blood clotting problems. These tests are carried out frequently. The new machine allows results to be known immediately, avoiding sending regular samples to the Labs and therefore preventing delays in any adjustments to the patient’s warfarin dose It was hoped that this machine might be partially funded by some of the money donated to group’s funds for medical equipment. However the health board has just recently intimated its intention to fund the purchase of this machine for practices next year and the practice therefore hopes the cost of this equipment will therefore be fully reimbursed by NHS Highland. The community nurse has intimated that access to an auroscope on her visits would be beneficial. The use of approximately £200 of the ringfenced equipment money in the patient group funds to purchase a new auroscope and a digital thermometer were sanctioned by the patients present. It was also agreed that, as the community nurse was no longer able to utilise the palliative care mattress purchased by the group in 2007, it should be offered for inclusion in the general assets of the Kintyre community nursing service so that it could be included in the NHS Highland programme of maintenance and cleaning now mandatory for these items and thus may be again made use of.
8. Adoption of group members for 2013/14
Mary Ann Gosling had intimated her wish to step down from the group and Dr Elder thanked her for her contribution over the last 8 years. The other 5 current representatives were happy to continue. As there were no nominations at the meeting to augment this number, the proposal was made that group members Josephine Blount, Val Cannell, James Henderson, Stuart Irvine, Paul Murphy continue for 2013/2014 (Proposed D Maccormick, seconded J Henderson). However nominations would be sought for at least one younger person to join the group next year to maintain representation of a cross-section of the patient population.
9. AOCB
The secretary queried whether it was worth continuing with the group in view of the on going poor turn out at these meetings. The consensus from the meeting was that it was a useful forum and should continue and that perhaps the small numbers reflected that in general, patients were happy with the service being provided, particularly in the context of the negative headlines coming from other areas of the UK. There were several comments from the floor which supported this such as patients’ appreciation of the dispensing service particularly in Skipness. There followed some discussion about the fragility of small rural practices and how these are gradually being absorbed into larger organisations
There was some discussion about how to encourage more patients to attend these meetings particularly younger patients. A suggestion was made to speak to the mums & toddlers group. It was also suggested that the minutes and information about the group should be posted on the practice website if this is possible.
Dr Elder highlighted that the holidays over the festive season would affect the usual surgeries in Skipness on a Wednesday for 2 consecutive weeks. However Josephine thought that most Skipness patients would have access to transport by some means to allow them to come to Carradale if required. There will also be no Red Cross transport over the festive season.
Dr Elder drew attention to the leaflets available at the door. These were related to the Bowel Screening Service, McMillan Cancer Information and Support Service at Aquilibrium and Carers Information. GP practices are being asked to encourage patients to return their bowel screening tests to improve early detection of bowel cancer. The tests are sent to all patients aged 50 to 74 every 2 years and uptake is significantly lower in the male population. There was also some discussion about information and support for informal carers and whether there would be interest in a local forum eg in the village hall with perhaps workshops such as that for Falls Prevention being run in Campbeltown.
There being no other business raised, the meeting was closed at 11.30 am.
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