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Minutes of the Patients Forum meeting held at Which? 2 Marylebone Road , NW1 on 9^th November, 2005

Present: Jonathan Ellis – Vice-Chair (Help the Aged); Sara Apps (Which?);  Peter Walsh (AvMA); Brian McGinnis (L’Arche); Gerda Loosemore-Reppen (Sign); Eileen Neilson (RPSGB);

Geraldine Amos (Home from Hospital Care);  Barbara Wood (BMA and RCR); Christine Hogg; Sally Brearley (Healthlink);  Judith Wardle (Continence Foundation);  In attendance:  Diana Basterfield (Patients Forum)  

Apologies: Carol Myer ( Royal College Paediatrics and Child Health); Toby Williamson (Mental Health Foundation); Hew Helps (Chiropractic Patients Association); Mike Took (Rethink)

Speaker:  Farkhanda Maqbool (GMC)

                Good Medical Practice Review (Consultation)

(See appendix for Powerpoint presentation)

Minutes of last meeting

The minutes of the last general meeting, held on July 13^th were agreed.

Minutes of the last Management Committee

The Minutes of the last Management Committee held on 1st September were noted.

Chair’s Report

Follow-up from the Patients Forum Awayday – potential new role for PF around health inequalities

It was reported that this was to be followed up by a consultation of members and expressions of interest bids were being sought from people interested to help with this project.   The Management Committee would be making a decision soon on the consultants and the timescales.    Members would be kept up-to-date and it was hoped to be able to report back to the full membership by April 2006.   The Patients Forum would still have 12 months of Department of Health funding to either implement or consider other options if people did not feel that was an appropriate way for the Forum to go.  

 Information Exchange   

 Sara Apps (Which?)     It was reported that they were about to produce a report on Medicines and Choice and were also looking forward to responding to the White Paper.   They also had ongoing work on out of hours care. 

Peter Walsh (Action against Medical Accidents)    It was reported that with the help of Which? they would be hosting a meeting directly following this Patients Forum meeting about the NHS Redress Bill.   This would have huge implications for the way that the NHS dealt with clinical negligence.     They were running a conference about the reforms to redress and also the NHS complaints procedure on 1^st December.

Brian McGinnis (L’Arche UK)    It was reported that for those who had not seen the Bulletin of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, there was a very interesting review of the Maudsley Group Practice in relation to implementing the NICE guidelines on involving patients in decisions on psychotropic medicine.   The gist of the findings are that it is not happening.    

Gerda Loosemore-Reppen (Sign)   It was reported that they were issuing and launching in the following weeks the “Basic Rights Pack” on mental health and deafness together with the Mental Health Foundation.   This included a briefing on everything about mental health and deafness, a poster in more visual format (so that it would be accessible for deaf people), a fact sheet on specialist services for deaf people with psychiatric problems and the Charter itself.  This would be on the website of both organisations as it was a partnership project.     It was also reported that there would be a course on communication tactics which was accredited to healthcare professionals in particular.

Eileen Neilsen (Royal Pharmaceutical Society)    It was reported that they were now in the middle of the first major development of their patient and public involvement strategy.  This was being carried out by three consultants led by Ros Levenson.    They would be producing a report towards the end of that first stage at the end of the year.    It was also reported that they were working on the Foster Review of Non-Medical Professional Regulation.  The big issue for them there was the misunderstanding of the role of the RPS, the idea that it is like both the BMA and the GMC and that was not correct.  RPS was not a trade union and could not be a trade union.   All their professional activity was geared at improving professional practice and issuing guidance.  Their strap line for a long time has been “Helping pharmacists to achieve excellence” and they were finding it very, very hard to counter the constantly repeated assertion that there was a conflict of interest in their role and that part of it has to stop.  This was a big issue for them at the moment.

Angeline Burke (NMC)   It was reported that they have a consultation out – with the closing date of 2^nd December – on Fitness to practice at the point of registration.    They were looking at they could better assess and ensure that nurses and midwives were fit to be on the register and then, once on the register, that they were supported, particularly in their first year or practice so that they would continue to maintain high standards. 

Barbara Wood (BMA Patients Liaison Group)   It was reported that they were constantly being asked to feedback into the development of BMA responses but they were also trying to keep their own independent voice and their own independent projects going.  A major project for them at the moment, and they would appreciate help on this, was a “Who’s Who” project – a glossary of descriptions of health professionals accessible to patients and the public.  When visiting someone described as a ‘Specialist Registrar’ or a ‘Consultant Podiatrist’ or a ‘Surgical Practitioner’ the person might have some idea about what that title meant.  They were also trying to gather information in order to do a best practice guidance on how patients should be informed of the role of the health professional that they are meeting – labeling, photographs, handouts, form of introduction, what people want to know and how they could be informed of that.   They would be sending out questionnaires for a number of groups that are members of the Patients Forum to try and get some patient feedback on what they would like to know and what their actual experience is so that they could work from there.  

Judith Wardle (Continence Foundation)     It was reported that, almost by default,  Judith had become the Chair of the Patients Involved in NICE group (PIN).   She observed that quite a number of new people were becoming involved in the group and it would, therefore, again, be providing training to people who needed it.     If anyone knew of people involved in any of the aspects of NICE who might like some training provided through the PIN group (most of this training is provided by their Patient Involvement Unit), do let them know that the group is there.

It was also reported, and this follows on from the talk at the Patients Forum AGM, at the Continence Foundation AGM about two weeks’ later, Judith was asked to write to Nigel Crisp and Patricia Hewitt expressing very serious concerns about the impact on services that are largely primary care based – as continence services are led from primary care – of the latest merry go round of PCTs and practice-based commission and people not knowing whether they were coming or going, whether they would have a job etc.       If anybody else has put in a similar kind of comment to the Department or to the Health Committee, which was meeting the previous week and this week, to look at that, she would be very interested to know what people have said.  

Jonathan Ellis (Help the Aged)  It was reported at the last meeting that a major programme of work for them in the coming period was issues related to the end of life.   Their were currently holding a series of workshops – an opportunity for people to come together to talk about end of life related issues around the UK .  This would culminate in a report in the New Year giving people an opportunity to articulate their own concerns, fears, wishes around end of life care.   It was also reported that since the previous meeting they had issued a new report looking at NHS podiatry services, looking at the lack of NHS podiatry services for older people, the fact that around 50% of  older people who have a clinical need for professional footcare services do not get it either from the NHS or the private sector.  There was a massive degree of unmet need there.   The report looked at how local health and social care communities had sought to fill that gap and the steps that Help the Aged felt needed to be taken to tackle this at a national level.     Finally, it was reported that their major campaign on elder abuse was underway and they would be launching a public information campaign early in the New Year seeking to raise awareness of the issue.  

 Date of next meeting    

 Wednesday January 11^th, 2006

 Appendix  (double click on the image then use arrows in bottom left hand corner to access the presentation)

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