Patient Participation Group

PPG Minutes: 11th September 2025

Held at The Surgery, Glapthorn Rd, Oundle at 5.30pm

Attendees

• G Blagden (PPG)
• A Christmas (Acting Chair PPG) 
• S Davidson (PPG) 
• S Edwards (Practice Manager Lakeside Oundle)  
• Dr R Naidoo (GP Oundle Surgery)
• S Oakes (PPG)
• S McLeod (PPG)

Apologies

Apologies from Jessica Bowden, and the resignation of Morag Horsnail was reported. AC indicated that he had received 2 applications to join the PPG that were being progressed.

Minutes

The minutes of the meeting held on the 4th June were approved.

Anima and Appointments

These two items were taken together being numbers 3 and 4 on the Agenda.

SE presented a paper detailing a revised Anima process, the Practice’s online consultation tool, which was to become effective on the 29th September.

This is implementing a directive/changes to the GP Contract in 2025/2026 (Clauses 7.5.1) that make the use of Anima in the revised form compulsory from the 1st October 2025, and requires Anima to be kept open for the duration of core surgery hours (8am to 6.30pm) for non urgent appointment requests, medication queries and admin requests.

This is a change that the Practice is obliged to implement. Patients will be required to put all GP requests through Anima. Anima will be open and manned from 8.00am to 6.30pm each day and will be staffed by an administrator and a GP who will triage each Anima submission and respond to the patient by their preferred method of communication (landline, mobile, email) indicating the booking of an appointment and the clinician tasked with dealing with the case.

Non GP requests (nurses, social prescribers, physio etc) can be dealt with in the usual way, although Anima can be used for this as well.

• SMcL raised concerns as to patients who are unable to digitally access Anima, principally the elderly and/or patients challenged by online technology. SE stated that requests could be made in person on paper via reception, or by telephone by going through reception where receptionists will be available to input requests to Anima on behalf of patients.
• SMcL pointed out that the new website (live on 10t September 2025) indicates that Anima will be closed when full, and that this did not seem to comply with the new requirements of the 2025/26 contract. SE stated that the website will be altered on the 29th September to show, as required, the new opening hours.
• AC asked if this was in operation in any other Lakeside practices and SE indicated that it was functioning very well in Hereward Practice in Bourne, and nearly all the Doctors and himself had visited Bourne to see it working.
• AC asked if the implementation of this scheme would result in a spike in telephone delays in the 8.00am rush. SE indicated that it would. It is anticipated that this will have settled down within one month, but there will be initial disruption without doubt. Triaging will carry on throughout the day, but it will not necessarily mean an appointment will be available that day. Patients may engage Anima at say 6.15pm.
• SO asked why Wansford had access to a Paramedic. RN indicated that this was just as a result of that practice having different staffing make up.
• SD asked how was the new Anima message being relayed to patients. SE indicated that text messages to all patients with mobile phones would be one way, dissemination at Flu clinics another.
• SMcL stated that there was real anger amongst patients around the inability to pre book appointments. RN indicated that pre bookable appointments will be possible from the 1st October through Anima at least for 30 days in advance and may be even more.
• SE indicated that at Hereward there was a lot of back and forth communication with patients around preferred Doctors being on holiday, preferred times for appointments etc. RN indicated that the practice was trying to streamline the system to create more Doctors appointments. Examples of triaging from Hereward were discussed.
• AC asked as to the numbers of reception staff needed. SE said that 2 were currently in the process of being appointed. There are currently 10 very strong applicants.
• SMcL asked about the new Doctor recruitment. RN indicated that this was ongoing as it had not been possible to recruit from a first round of applicants in August.
• A discussion then ensued around recruitment of new doctors and government policy. SMcl referred to the 2025/2026 changes to the ARRS Scheme (which are designed to make the scheme more flexible, remove the GPARRS ringfence, and enable PCNs to claim reimbursement for GPs alongside existing ARRS roles plus practice nurse roles which will be added to the scheme), and asked if this would facilitate the employment of further GPs/nurses for the practice. RN seemed unsure.
• GB then expressed concerns about patient feelings at the moment around call wait times, appointments etc. RN said there were bound to be problems with the new system, but SMcL asked what the GPs views around this were. RN indicated that they had reservations, but were encouraged, but did have reservations as to the Surgery”s capacity to deliver. He accepted that there was a lot of frustration out there with the Surgery that needs to be dealt with and it is intended that this deals with that issue. 
• SMcL then raised an issue as to Locums, and their ability/inability to access patients records and test results, including scan results. RN stated that Locums had full access to all of a patient’s records, including any test and scan results, and should be capable of accessing them. He agreed to look into a particular issue that had arisen in this respect. 

Lakeside Financial Structure

AC explained that following a meeting of the Chairs of Lakeside PPGs  where the Lakeside financial structure was discussed, he was unable to satisfy enquiries made by the members of Oundle PPG, and so was therefore seeking clarification on a number of points. This was to ensure that Oundle was getting its appropriate share of Lakeside funds.

It was understood that Oundle as a practice receives funding through various sources. SE stated his understanding that those funds were received centrally by Lakeside (along with funds from other Lakeside Practices) and were then distributed according to agreed budgets to each Lakeside Practice to then deliver the healthcare services they were contracted to provide. The Oundle Doctors who are GP Partners, are in fact Partners in a single Lakeside partnership (Lakeside Healthcare) and share profits equally with other Lakeside Healthcare Partner Doctors.

AC requested reassurance that Oundle was receiving its fair share of resources from Lakeside and further reassurance that the issues that are causing Oundle to suffer are not caused by lack of resources but by other factors that are being addressed at the moment. RN explained that the Budget for each practice is mainly driven by list (patient) size. Oundle are not disadvantaged in that distribution. RN indicated that Oundle was receiving more than their fair share of the budget due to their patient demographic. AC challenged as to why were Oundle not doing as well as others. RN indicated that there were only two Lakeside practices that were doing better than Oundle, but that as with other surgeries they were trying to “cut a 10 person cake 30 ways”.

GB indicated that we hoped that in a couple of months performance through Anima will have improved and that funding and finance will not be in the spotlight as much as it is now and that patients will not need the reassurance as to funding because Oundle will be performing better. SMcL then read a message from Social Media concerning a particular case  which SE indicated was a totally unacceptable occurrence, which he had since investigated and issued an apology for. SMcL further indicated that the website had now been updated, as required, with the average net earnings of the practice’s GPs, but that some critical narrative from the old website had been excluded, which included the statement that the prescribed method for calculating earnings was potentially misleading and should not be used to form any judgement about GP earnings, nor to make any comparison with any other practice. He asked that this significant caveat be reinstated.

There then followed a discussion as to the lack of transparency of Lakeside and the frustration giving rise to a patient petition as to inability to get appointments. GB expressed the hope that the Anima changes will improve matters so that complaints drop away. SMcL asked when the last patient register was revised to reflect the increased patient body arising from the several new housing developments in the area, which should in turn give rise to increased funding for the practice. RN indicated that numbers had risen overall by about 200, but he hoped it would increase further. 

Website

The new web site is up and running (live on 10th September), and the PPG congratulated SE and RN on its launch. GB noted that the CQC assessed the practice as good in 2018 and RN responded that the CQC would inspect perhaps every 5 years, or earlier if there were concerns. SMcL stated that there was a requirement that the Patients Charter be displayed on the website, and it was not currently displayed. No explanation was given for this omission, but SE agreed to look into the matter which would be revisited at the next meeting. 

Survey results

SD had reviewed the Survey results prior to the meeting and asked if the GP patient survey was the only way of gathering feedback. She noted that 104 responses was low in view of the fact that the response to the same survey last year amounted to 873. There was no explanation for this drop that could be offered, although SD ventured that it perhaps reflected the level of patient despair that any attention would be paid to their views. The methods of communication were the same for each period. SD set out various ways patients can be encouraged to give feedback. Various scenarios were outlined getting the PPG involved. Feedback forms were available in reception and were reviewed by the Practice weekly.

Improvements and satisfaction surveys are key to producing improvements in the practice. SMcL commented that the results of the Oundle Patient Survey 2025 indicated that Net Promoter Scores (calculated on a range from minus 100 to 100) were all in the minus range with 3 below minus 50, namely -56, -67 and -69, but also that all the results were geared around the minimal number (around 0.9%) of the Oundle patients who responded, thus making the results almost meaningless in the context of the whole patient body. SE agreed.  AC asked what the PPG could do to assist in encouraging patients to engage. If there is anything that the PPG can do, then please suggest it to us. A listening table was suggested.

Access to duty doctor.

This was revisited as per the last meeting, to clarify.

Named Doctor

SMcL indicated that there were apparently a number of patients who did not know the identity of their named doctor. SE/RN indicated that there was no requirement to notify a patient of this on allocation. The process and function of the named doctor was examined and their role in a patient’s care. There is no periodic review of each patient by their named GP, and the overall supervisory role of a named GP was stated to apply in the main to patients with long term care needs/complex conditions.

Flu 2025

The Flu Clinics are set for the 4th October, (am) for Flu only, and the 11th October (all day) for both Flu and Covid. There is a mid week Flu clinic on the 8th October. It was suggested that there could be a PPG table at those clinics.

Dispensary Phone Line

It is now good practice that medication should not be ordered on the phone. The line will be shut in November. About 30 people a week currently use it for this purpose. People will be notified. Patients will be asked to use the App. They can also order in person, or in writing. GB indicated that there was an internal post box to the left of the main door, physically close to the dispensary, but it had no indication as to what it was for. SE would investigate.

AOB

1. SE said that there are 10 strong candidates for 2 new receptionist posts and it was hoped appointments would be made next week. There are 4 FTE receptionists at the moment and this will rise to 6 FTEs.
2. SO Commented that people were delighted that visitors to the Fire Station Open day were allowed to use the Doctors car Park
3. SMcL noted that SE was to bring back to this meeting suggestions for projects to enable the release of CIL sums to the practice (see previous minutes). SE said he had not done this, but will do so to the next meeting. This will be an agenda item. 

Date of next meeting 

13th November 5.30pm at The Surgery