About the Patient Participation Group

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Our PPG are very active in the local community and you will often see them in the surgery speaking and getting feedback from other patients. Come and join them!

If you are interested in getting involved, you can use our secure online form.

Patient Surveys

A quality survey has been conducted and discussed with the PPG and the clinical and practice staff and an action plan developed to address the issues raised.

Virtual Patient Group

Holland Park Surgery has a virtual patient group. If you wish to join the group, use the online form above.

Latest PPG Meeting Minutes

Wednesday 28 September 2022 5.00 - 6.00pm

Present: 8 participants

• TL (Chairperson), CL (Secretary and minutes taker).
• RP, MH, DA, SL, RB, EO

Apologies: 6

1 Welcome and Introduction/purpose of meeting/rules

Introduction of all participants.

The Patient Participation Group is a forum to share ideas and new developments. It is also to hear views, suggestions and support from the group. It is not a forum for individual complaints. The participants need to be open, honest and demonstrate commitment.

2 Extended Hours Access from 1 October 2022/ Type of Appointments/St Charles

TL explained the new NHS contract regarding the provision of extended hours for practices from 01/10/22 and the need to provide access from 8.00am to 8.00pm every day, including Saturday. Each practice cannot provide this cover individually, but as a Primary Care Network (PCN) it will be covered at the hub at St Charles hospital.

From 01/10/22 patients can be booked for extended hours on Monday to Friday 6.30pm-9pm, Saturdays and Sundays 8am-8pm at St. Charles Hospital. The Federation is in charge of providing this service at the hub. Different types of appointments will be offered, with GPs, Nurses, Health Care Assistants and other health professionals such as Pharmacists and Physiotherapist. They will also have access to patient records and they may use staff from practices to work in the hub. Receptionists can book remotely, and we need to ensure that appointments are shared amongst the practices. Appointments will be shared out according to the practice list size. There will also be appointments available at Violett Melchett, for South of the Borough. Patients can call 111 over the weekend to book an appointment.

All the information is on the website.

A participant asked if the Urgent Care Centre will still see patients for minor injuries. This service will still remain and is different access from the extended hours hub.

Holland Park Surgery will be open from 8am-6.30pm from Monday to Friday.

We have found that since the covid pandemic, we had a significant increase of the number of telephone calls and requests for appointments and other things.

We are seeing more than 85% of face-to-face appointments, and never really stopped seeing patients during covid, if it was necessary.

3 Patients Survey/result as a PCN and Practice results

The results from the GP survey were very good for Holland Park Surgery. All the percentages were above the local and national level and the PCN average. The results are available on the website. In regards to the mental health, patients responded that we give the best care and time given to patients. The CCG did a comparative between the PCNs and our PCN West-Hill Health came at the top. We were very pleased with the results.

Participants praised Holland Park for the very good results and suggested to put a banner on the website to show the achievement and to publicise our GP Survey results.

A patient praised the surgery and asked TL to pass on the Groups’ thanks to the team.

4 Primary Care Network update

Our Primary Care Network (PCN) is called West-Hill health and is a group of 10 local practices.

We have a clinical lead who is Dr Naomi Katz from Grand Union Health Centre.

a) PCN services and additional roles/PCN clinical pharmacists, Physician Associate and Social Prescriber

Within the PCN practices, we can offer more services.

We also have other health professionals assisting each practices through the PCN.

At Holland Park we have 3 clinical pharmacists (1 Senior Clinical Pharmacist part time and 2 full time).

We have a Physicians Associate 3 days a week. It is a relatively new role with clinical training. The Physician Associate is quite helpful on busy duty days. He can take the history of patients and he also completes diabetic reviews and runs the virtual group for diabetic patients.

We have a Social Prescriber 2 days a week who can assist patients from ages 18 -65 with a range of social issues, housing issues, and can help with crisis and guide them in the right direction.

We have a Health Visitor who comes in one afternoon a week to do a baby clinic.

We also recently started a Mental Health Lead for the PCN, who will liaise between Mental Health services and Practices. Patients would still be referred to the crisis team when needed.

We continue offering Minor Surgery here for all the practices (which no other practice offers).

b) Covid 19 booster at St Charles/ Flu Vaccines / Polio Vaccinations 1y to 9y

The PCN is also providing vaccinations on a bigger scale, organised by the Federation. Covid 19 booster, flu vaccines and polio booster for children 1-9y are offered. Appointments can be booked remotely. All  appointments are at St Charles.

The practice is still doing flu vaccines and polio booster for children if needed but we do not have the capacity to do a large number of children. There are more clinics on site at St. Charles’ Hospital.

A participant suggested having a booking system for flu as this would avoid calling the practice. TL acknowledged that it would be a good idea and some practices have been doing it via a link sent with the text message. We will ask the IT team to link the systems. This would be the next step for improvement.

A Participant asked who is monitoring the delivery of the service at St Charles. The delivery and quality of service is monitored by the Federation, who is responsible for staff and the running of the service. If  anything goes wrong the Federation will inform us, also if a patient is not happy, the GP can report it to the Federation.

5 Practice’ s staff Update

Our list size has grown significantly since Covid 2 years ago (2019). From 9,500 to 11,800 (September 22). We have employed 2 new salaried GPs and still need to hire another GP. We rarely use locum Doctors as it impacts on the continuity of care for patients. However, we have a long term Locum GP who is covering a maternity leave. We have 3 Salaried GPs doing a Fellowship training.

The Partners would always step up and cover absences if needed.

The Nurses have not changed and one nurse is completing her RGN registration as she was a Nurse associate before.

A participant asked if we are still a teaching practice. TL confirmed that we currently have 3 trainers and we have 4 trainee Doctors (3 ST3 registrars and 1 ST1). We also have 2 medical students (year 3) every term from Imperial. Overall the Partners give time for students.

SF is our Reception Co-ordinator and helps to run the receptionists’ team. We have a few new receptionists; however, we have a low turnover of staff.

The discussion went on the level of calls and patients’ demands.

TL informed participants that we receive between 300 to 400 calls a day. We have a new telephone system called Surgery Connect to improve the service. We are trying to answer calls quickly to avoid patients having to wait more than 5 minutes on the phone or they can be called back.

Receptionists take all the blame or abuse from patients. It was commented that some patients are complaining very easily and more patients are abusive. Participants were quite troubled by this fact and felt that it was unfair for the practice and the staff as Holland Park surgery is offering appointments very quickly and they were praising the service offered.

The practice has very good comments on NHS choices. But some unpleasant reviews are on google, with often no names to respond to the patient.

A participant asked about the My Care My Way (MCMW) Service. This service is for the over 65s, and they are tiered by level of dependency: Level 1 – Seen and Discharged, Level 2 and 3– Need more help.  There are 3 MCMW staff but they are not employed directly by the practice. We have 2 hub sessions per week at the practice to review complex patients and for home visits.

Participants asked a question about recruitment. TL said that on a practice level it is difficult to recruit staff, especially GPs as young GPs are no longer prepared to work long hours and need a life-work balance as they often have young families. The Partners are working long hours. But the ethos of the practice is to offer a good service to patients and easy access. It is always possible to get an appointment on the same day – A participant said “Well done HPS”.

Participants said that they appreciate very much the easy access and quality of care and asked how, as a Group, they can support this as they really value it.

A participant asked if we have a choice for walk in. We are not providing a walk in service and most Practices are not doing walk in. If it is an urgent issue, patients are added to the duty list and would be triaged and seen on the same day if needed. 

6 Any other business

A member of the group enquired about volunteering at the surgery. She suggested we have a form for completion. The Participant suggested for example helping for survey or anything the Practice would need support with. This suggestion will be discussed further at the next meeting.

Next meeting in 3 to 4 months’ time.