March 25, 2025

Agenda

Please see PPG meeting minutes of 25/3/25

Minutes

1

Practice Pharmacist – Hieu Truong Van

Hieu gave an overview of his role within the practice:

·         Works very closely with the GPs

·         Manages medications on repeat and repeat dispensing.

·         Ensures reviews are carried out appropriately in the correct time frame for specific medications.

·         Promotes birth month monitoring for patients who are on regular medication with long term conditions.

·         Directs acute medication requests to GPs.

·         Checks discharge letters for medication changes/additions/cessation and issues/removes as requested.

·         Reacts to National changes in regulations or medication shortages and contacts relevant patients to discuss a plan of action.

·         Works closely with community pharmacists regarding medications and patient needs.

·         Suggests alternative medication if there are shortages or allergic reactions.

·         Discusses repeat dispensing with patients who are stable on their current medication regime and implements the change when appropriate.

·         Contacts patients requesting medication who are due a review before the issue can be authorised.

·         Performs audits on certain conditions and medications to ensure patient safety.

·         Attends prescribing meetings within the practice and wider ICB to ensure protocol is followed.

·         Books patients into timed appointments to review their medication.

 

Hieu is a valued member of the team.  He works remotely and contacts patients via phone and text message when necessary.  He works in conjunction with Jess, the pharmacy technician and the GPs under their direction and that of the wider ICB (integrated care board).  He is employed partly from funding received by the PCN (primary care network) to reduce burden on GPs.

 

Hieu introduced Repeat Dispensing, which those present had not heard of before.  He explained that this was something the practice were keen to promote.  It is suitable for patients who are stable on medication and who attend specified monitoring for their condition.  Once the monitoring has been completed and all is satisfactory, medications can be issued for up to 12 months, depending on the medication regime.  Prescriptions are then issued and sent electronically to 'drop down' at appropriate intervals for dispensing ie, 2 monthly.  When the next issue is due, the patient contacts the pharmacy of their choice to collect rather than requesting from the GP surgery.  The prescription is already approved so it can be dispensed in a quick time frame.  When all prescriptions have been dispensed, a review and monitoring will be due in order for the system to be repeated.  If a patient becomes unwell and their monitoring is out of range, repeat dispensing will temporarily cease until the patient is stable again, ensuring patient safety.

 

Prescriptions issued electronically are held in the 'cloud' therefore it is possible to request these from any pharmacy in England.

 

 

AW – said that appointment slots are not always adhered to and can be waiting for a time for a call.

HTV – said specific slots can be booked with him, but sometimes priorities may mean a slight change in timings.

 

RP – asked if he would advise on supplements considering medical conditions and medications.

HTV – said first port of call should be the community pharmacist (chemist) who should be able to advise on this, but he would be happy to advise if the community pharmacist could not help.

RP – said could this be published on the website or other information channels for patients to understand.

 

HC – said it could be placed on the website, information monitor within reception and on our information Facebook page.  A newsletter is also planned to include recent changes to the appointment system.

AW – remarked that the appointment system seems to be working much better than the previous one.

CS – said that the receptionists are always very helpful and go above and beyond to help sort out appointments.

RP – suggested themed weeks of information on all platforms, which was hailed a good idea by all.

 

CS – asked that text messages sent to patients regarding annual reviews should be more specific to inform the patient that more than one appointment may be required to satisfy the review criteria.  The message should say to book an appointment 'as part of your annual review'. This would be useful so that patients are aware that they may need to have a separate medication review with the pharmacist.

 

All those present thought repeat dispensing was a great process to avoid bothering the surgery and time taken for prescriptions to be signed and also more convenient for the patient in many ways.

RP – asked if this information could be make available to more patients via the website, Information monitor and Facebook so that more patients were aware of the facility.

 

HC – said she would ensure this information was more widely available to patients.

 

2

COVID Vaccinations – Spring Booster 2025

The 2025 Spring COVID booster programme commences on 1st April 2025 until 17th June 2025.  The cohort for this vaccine programme is those aged 75, or who turn 75 before 17th June 2025, immunosuppressed patients or those who reside in a care home.

 

The practice will be holding a COVID vaccination walk-in clinic on Saturday 12th April 2025 from 8.30am – 12 noon.  No appointment is required.  All those in the above cohorts are welcome to attend. 

 

There may be additional small, timed clinics available after this, but this depends on vaccine and clinician availability.  Therefore, we would advise attending the walk-in clinic if this is suitable.

 

There will be additional clinics which are arranged nationally.  Further information will be available on the nhs.uk website after 1st April 2025.

 

 

3

NHS England Abolishment

The government have reported that NHS England  which was established in 2013, will be abolished within 24 months to help streamline functions. 

We discussed whether this would be a positive move and most thought it could not be any worse than the current system.

 

4

Protected Learning Time

The NHS is constantly changing, and new initiatives and processes often require further training. 

Previously the practice was allotted one afternoon per month to ensure that new learning and processes were up to date, however this has now been reduced to 6 per year, with only 2 of those being for practice development.  This makes it evermore challenging to ensure new processes are embedded into the workplace.  However, we also acknowledge the extra pressures on the 111 service, who cover during our time out. 

 

 

Next Meeting June 2025 – Date TBA