PPG Minutes: Monday 13th October 2025

Held at 6.30pm at Lambourn Surgery

Present

• Alan Breadmore (Chairman)
• Peter Cox (Secretary) 
• Liz Cox
• Mary Wilson
• Karen Pryer
• Geoff Fowler
• Claire Hill
• Dr Zoe Wanless (Surgery)
• Louise Murray-Clarke (Surgery) 
• Simon Shaw (Healthwatch
• Julia Bennet (Racing) 
• Charlotte Clarke (Racing Welfare)

Apologies

• Geoff Fowle
• Bridget Jones
• Graham Jones

Minutes of the meeting 14th April 2024

The minutes were approved.

Matters Arising 

Update on Surgery Staff on website

Louise confirmed that with the current Surgery software there is no allowance for showing waiting times. The current procedure of the receptionist going into the waiting room and informing the  patients directly will continue. Peter recounted and episode where he was accompanying an elderly patient as part of the LVG service and the receptionist came into the waiting room and  informed her of a possible 40 min wait. It later transpired that this was probably due to the previous patient having just gone from the waiting room to the receptionist and complaining about his delay. Claire asked, was it evident to the receptionist that there is a delay? Zoe replied that it was not always possible to see those waiting if she was dealing with phone calls. 

Dentist bus visit to Lambourn

Louise and Charlotte announced that they were due to have a meeting with the service provider the following day at which point Mary said she had received an email reporting of a visit by the bus. However, Mary had deleted this email. She was asked if she could recover it! (She reported the following day that it was impossible to retrieve the email )

Disscussion Topics

10 year Health Plan

In his email apology Graham reported that: “Pharmacy bodies are generally supportive (as am I) of the strategic direction. 

Community pharmacy is continuing to become a more clinical and community-based service. Further integration with other primary care providers is ongoing and to be welcomed. Predictably the plan is short on detail and crucially needs funding. The shift from secondary care to primary care is welcome as the lions share of extra NHS funding over the last few decades has gone into secondary care/hospitals. GPs and pharmacies have predictably struggled financially. Shifting the money to primary care and community based preventative services is the right thing to do but will need political will.

I have been involved in lobbying to get GP and pharmacy bodies to work more closely to promote primary care as a whole rather than their own individual sectors.”

Through the Patient Panel (PP) Alan reported that NHS documents listed the need for safeguarding and safety polices for Healthwatch and PPGs. The PP will follow this up.

Otherwise, Louise said that there had not been any action required through the Surgery. 

Surgery Update on vaccination

Louise reported on the successful flu and covid vaccinations carried out on the 4th October when there were 613 for flu and 272 for covid given (as reported by Sarah Rowell in an earlier email). She thanked the PPG for the help with the car parking. There were now 933 patients who had been vaccinated for flu which included those who had received them at other locations. Louise said that there were a total 1500 patients due for flu vaccination and that there were 500 appointments for the next Saturday clinic on the 18th October. For the covid vaccinations there had been some general misinformation as to who was eligible as those under 75 without immunosuppressive issues had been removed form those eligible. 

Karen said she still needed 3 more volunteers to assist in car park duty although all time periods were covered. 

Louise said that there was difficulty in getting the younger age group (30 to 50) of eligible patients to attend for vaccinations. Claire considered that there could be an issue of vaccination fatigue where people had received so many they thought it was not worth having any more.

Patient Panel (PP)

Alan reported that he had not attended the last meeting and presented information from the minutes. He noted that John Bagshaw had now retired from being a trustee of the RBH. There was a current deficit of £18 M at the RBH. RBH were ditching the drdotor software for communicating with patients and moving to a connect system. The RBH has now set up a sexual health service in Newbury (presumably at the WBCH?). Alan announced the merger of our current BOB (Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West) ICB (Integrated Care Board) with that for Frimley ICB. (Post meeting Peter has found that the new ICB will be called the Thames Valley ICB but will not start operating until at least the 1st April 2026)

Alan observed that other PPGs were holding special evenings including one at Mortimer on pain relief and others on the use of defibrillators. Both Julie and Charlotte considered the idea of a presentation on pain relief would be of interest to the racing industry as well.

Pharmacy

Graham reported by email that; “We are vaccinating (covid and flu) in Lambourn Pharmacy on Tuesdays (am and pm) and Wednesdays (am). As you may be aware the central booking system information has not been good with many ineligible people being encouraged to book covid vaccinations which we then have to refuse. Will be operating till the end of the year.

The pharmacy contraceptive service (this is for oral contraception only) is having a growing uptake.

We also offer a hypertension screening service (over 40s with undiagnosed hypertension) can be checked. If high we can then offer a 24 hour ambulatory check prior to GP referral. GPs also able to direct patients to the ambulatory service.

Pharmacy first services continue to have a good uptake.

I am now qualified to run a travel clinic offering a wide range of travel vaccines (not yellow fever) and malaria prevention. When the demand for covid and flu vaccines abates next month, this will be promoted. This is private and not an NHS service.”

Healthwatch

Simon reported that Healthwatch had an inclusive policy which PPGs should incorporate at their AGMs. Alan will review the policy for inclusion at the next AGM of Lambourn Surgery next January. Healthwatch were looking at the health rights for young people. Those over 14 can book appointments directly and it will be up to the GP as to whether their parents should be informed.

Racing Industry

1. Charlotte had not been able to resolve the issues with a member of the racing community who was having problems with gambling addiction.
2. Charlotte asked if there was anything available for those with mental health issues and were at a crisis point. The crisis team had not been able to help. For help from the Surgery, they had to be registered patients. Zoe said that if the crisis was severe then A and E was the best place to deal with it. Julia admitted that she herself had taken somebody in this situation and asked if the LVG could do this. Zoe advised against this unless it was category2 situation i.e those that are classed as an emergency or a potentially serious condition that may require rapid assessment, urgent on-scene intervention and/or urgent transport). The alternative was to call 111.
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 reported that the Wellbeing Workshop held on the 10th September for the Racing Community was very poorly supported by the management teams at the yards, even though it was a day when no actual racing took place. However, the meeting had been good for networking amongst the professionals and generating ideas for going forward. She will work with the BHA to keep collaborative working. The lack of engagement was worrying for Julia and Charlotte especially with the high level of drug misuse amongst the stables staff

Any Other Business (AOB)

Solutions4Health

Louise said that the Surgery were asked in June to provide a list of those patients who followed a set of their criteria. This included those patients who were infrequently seen by Surgery staff and anybody aged 30 to 65 years old. A selection would then be invited by Solutions4Health to an independent checkup. However, Charlotte reported that the local rep had visited one of the racing welfare meetings and invited anybody attending to have the checkup.

Online booking availability 

The question had been raised by Geoff after he had unsuccessfully tried to book an appointment on the Surgery website. This was as a result of government publicity about changes to the requirements for booking appointments. The publicity did not fully explain that the change was for all surgeries to have the ability to request appointments on-line, not actually book them. The Lambourn Surgery eConsult process fully covered the criteria. AB reported that some local surgeries were still unable or unwilling to implement this policy in its entirety.

Next Meeting

It was proposed that the next meeting in 2026 will be on the 12th January 2026 at 6:30pm at the Surgery. This will also be the AGM.

The meeting closed at 7:50 pm