PPG Minutes: Monday 1st September 2025

Held at 6.30pm at Lambourn Surgery

Present

• Alan Breadmore (Chairman)
• Peter Cox (Secretary)
• Liz Cox
• Mary Wilson
• Karen Pryer
• Geoff Fowler
• Graham Jones
• Bridget Jones
• Dr Sarah Stallabrass (Surgery)
• Louise Murray-Clarke (Surgery)
• Simon Shaw (Healthwatch)
• Julia Bennet (Racing)
• Charlotte Clarke (Racing Welfare)

Apologies

• Claire Hill
• Julie Mintern

Minutes of the meeting 14th April 2024

Peter expressed thanks to Claire for the minutes of the meeting when he was unable to attend. The minutes were approved.

Matters Arising 

Update on Surgery Staff on website

• The full list of the 4 shared PCN staff and the areas they covered had been provided by Louise and circulated to the committee.
• Peter asked if it could be possible for the list of Lambourn doctors and staff to be kept up to date on the Surgery website. Louise said that they were using so many locums that it would be difficult to maintain a fully up to date list. She announced that a replacement Clinical Pharmacist had been appointed

Disscussion Topics

10 year Health Plan

The committee had been provided with much information from official government sources and other professional bodies on the plan. The plan has 3 main themes which can be summarized by;

1. Community services
2. Analogue to digital
3. Prevention

The committee agreed that these were valid topics but that there was little information as to exactly how they could be achieved. As regards the community services it was regarded that the West Berkshire Community Hospital (WBCH) could be a good location for such a desired community service facility.

The suggested size of multi surgery units of 50,000 patients could be difficult for Lambourn to fit into. The current number of patients for Lambourn is around 6,000 whilst that for the PCN is 23,000. Louise suggested to reach the target we would have to combine with surgeries on the outskirts of Newbury which the committee did not think would be a good idea.

Surgery

• Lambourn GP Survey: The full details of the survey had been sent to the committee and were displayed on the screen at the meeting. Overall, there was a good appreciation of the work done by the Surgery with patients getting on well with care navigators. 
• Update on vaccinations: To cover an item back from April Peter asked if the surplus vaccines had been used. Louise reported that unfortunately there was no opportunity for this due to the short shelf life of the vaccine. Louise announced that for the upcoming vaccinations for flu and covid these were to be carried out at the surgery on Saturdays 4th and 18th October. There would be no drop in options on these dates and there would be individual invites made to patients. A drop in service was to be arranged for Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. The PPG was asked to help out with parking. Alan agreed and Karen will assist with arranging the personnel. Louise reminded all that there was always the option for those with a difficulty in walking for vaccinations to be given whilst the patient was seated in a car. Also, if patient had difficulty in standing whilst waiting the Surgery waiting room will be open for these patients. 
• Consideration of a waiting time/ delay display in the waiting room:  Mary raised this issue on behalf of a patient remarking that they were in common use in local hospitals. It was agreed that it may be difficult for this to be done at Lambourn and that maybe it would be a better idea for receptionists to go into the waiting room and advise individuals if there was an unplanned delay in their being seen. The receptionists can see how many people are waiting for each doctor/nurse. 
• Prescription tracking in NHS App: Alan said that this option was only currently available to customers of Boots. Graham said that Lambourn Pharmacy had been offered a software solution to do this which was under consideration. 
• Figures for patient non-attendances: Louise gave the DNA figures for missed appointments in August as;
  • Doctors 36 (24)
  • Nurses 66 (52)
  • Mental Health Practitioner 7 ( 5)
  • MSK Practitioner 7 ( 5)
  • Clinical Pharmacist (2)

It was observed that on the Lambourn Surgery Facebook page the following Wednesday the figures in brackets were listed for August missed appointments. Liz said she knew of 2 people who had DNAs on their records and who had not known of the appointment missed. Louise said she required full details before any comment could be made. Liz will assist in providing this. 

• Dr Copas: Louise reported that Dr Copas will be returning to the surgery the following week for two days per week, Tuesdays and Fridays. It will be a staged return with a reduced patient list. To cover the other periods the Surgery will be appointing a further doctor. Dr Copas will remain as a practice partner. Patients are still able to ask for a specific doctor or for a person with knowledge of a specific complaint but that their registered doctor will still get all their admin correspondence. 
• Breast screening:  The once every 3 years visit by the breast screening clinic had been offered to 916 patients. 42 opted out whilst 132 were recorded as DNA. Louise was asked as to how many of the tests had resulted in cancers being found? Post meeting Louise was able to respond that 5 breast cancers had been picked up. 

Lambourn Surgery Amenities Fund (LSAF)

Liz reported that there was £2,900 in the main account. The Resuscitation bag had been received and already used to good effect. The provision for a quiet room for dementia patients and others was still in progress. A new area of land was being looked at, there being no spare room capacity at the moment.

Patient Panel (PP)

Alan reported that there had been a visit by the Reading MP whilst the Newbury MP had been unable to attend. The were updates from BOB to possibly form a Thames Valley ICB. There will be joint meeting Reading PP.

Alan informed the committee that through the work of the West Berks Community Hospital trust a new building for another MRI scanner had started. There was also land identified for a potential extension of facilities on the current car park area. There is little likelihood of a new hospital for the RBH as they were at the bottom of the second list for new hospitals.

Pharmacy

Graham reported that the dispensing volume at his Pharmacy had been increasing but as this was cost neutral and not a financial benefit to him. He reported that of his dispensing customers there were now 5% to 6% from outside the area due to the closing of many local facilities. He would like to do more with Pharmacy First. There were now 30 to 40 consultations per month for customers using the Pharmacy First process. These were spilt between those referred to by 111, self-referred or by the Surgery. A contraception service was being offered. The Pharmacy was also offering hypertension monitoring with a BP check and/or by using an ambulatory unit. There was soon to be a vaccination travel clinic.

The committee congratulated Graham on his recent appearance on local TV supporting local independent Pharmacy units. 

Healthwatch

Simon reported that despite the projected demise of Healthwatch it will require an act of parliament to do this, although it could be included in a health bill. Healthwatch continued to serve as an independent patient voice.

Julia commented that she had recently met with Fiona at Healthwatch regarding a wellbeing program provided through Solutions4Health. 

Racing Industry

1. Charlotte would like to try have a visit by a NHS dentist bus to Lambourn as this had been a successful event at Newmarket. Although at Newmarket this had just been for racing staff she thought that this could be more of a community thing for Lambourn. Graham commented that the setup of the Lambourn dentist was originally along the same lines but the dentist was only committed to providing this for a period. It was acknowledged that the current dentist is only doing private work. Charlotte was encouraged to try for a bus visit.
2. Charlotte was in touch with a member of the racing community who was having problems with gambling addiction. They were not getting any additional support other than at Swindon. To see the Mental Health practitioner at the surgery Louise said that the person must be a registered patient. If necessary, Liz suggested that the Lambourn Volunteer Group could help with transport arrangements to Swindon depending on the length and period of the treatment.
3. Charlotte was asking if there were any ideas for a meeting room to assist with a visit by v-ia, an alcohol and drug charity, besides the one at the community centre which she had been offered. Graham suggested she contact Julie Mintern.
4. Julia announced a Wellbeing Workshop will be held on the 10th September for the Racing Community with 2 key sessions led by an expert on drug and alcohol addition, a retired murder detective and a person from BHA. These started at 1:30pm and 6:30pm with Q&A times afterwards. There will be food and drink available throughout the day at The  Memorial Hall

Any Other Business (AOB)

On behalf of Geoff, Alan asked if there was any progress on the government proposed medical and eye checks for all drivers over the age of 70. Louise said the Surgery had not received any details on the proposed requirements. 

Next Meeting

It was proposed that the last meeting in 2025 will remain as planned on Monday, 13th October.

The meeting closed at 8:25 pm