Patient Participation Group

Our Patient Participation Group (PPG) meets to provide a forum for discussion about the practice.

Latest PPG meeting minutes

1. Welcome

A good turnout considering it is the middle of the summer holiday season.

2. Matters arising

Neighbourhood health

Elaine reported that things are on hold for the moment. The planned changes in boundaries to the Local Authorities (moving towards 3 unitary bodies) and the new Prime Minister’s announcement that health and care boundaries have to align has meant that things are being reviewed. In the meantime, the Integrated Care Board (ICB) has grouped the 15 proposed neighbourhoods into 3 groups (North – including the West, Oxford City and South). They are currently looking to second managers into a new role to manage the change. The posts should be up and running by October.

Dr Salisbury noted that the GP practices in Oxford have patients over wide areas, which cross proposed Neighbourhood Boundaries, and that the idea of a GP practice being the hub of a neighbourhood when they were not responsible for all the patients in that area did not make sense.

3. NHS App session on 29th July 2026

The practice sent out 200 invitations to patients over 60 who have mobile phones but do not seem to be using the NHS App. Five patients came along. They had all already downloaded the app and wanted us to help them set up an account. The main issues were the poor phone signal in the waiting room – every step required dual authentication and some patients had to go outside to get a signal and a code. This took so long that the session was 'timed out' and they had to wait 15 minutes to start again.

Barbara L – who came to help and be helped said that she had found the session useful. Ann from the practice was very patient and her help was appreciated.

We then had a discussion about what we could do, or who we should approach about the general issues of poor mobile signal in the area.

4. Updates from the practice

Vision/Values statement, comments and feedback

About a dozen PPG members had sent in comments and feedback on the Vision statement. Elaine collated these, see the results below.

Elaine suggested that this would have been a great opportunity for the PPG and the practice to co-produce together.

We agreed that the PPG would revise the statement at the end of the meeting and send a revised document for the practice to consider.

The PPG suggested revised statement is attached at the end of these notes.

5. Patient issues

Private providers

At the previous meeting we were asked if we could put together a list of which organisations are providing which services. Several people had issues in accessing Musculo-skeletal services (MSK) provided by Cora Health (formerly known as Connect Health).

Dr Salisbury said that they were the main private contractors, and that all MSK referrals had to be triaged via them.

Several of us reported poor service from Cora – including lack of parking, long waits for appointments, triage by telephone and poor treatment. It was agreed that we should consider writing a letter (to the Commissioners at the ICB?).

Action: PPG members to send a note to Elaine of the experiences.

Ideas from local community groups

Elaine reported that she had recently been contacted by local people/groups about ideas around providing first aid courses to prevent people having to go to A&E and also defibrillators. They had suggested contacting the practice in the expectation that they would be able to help provide/arrange training or support for community projects. Elaine had suggested that the practice would not be able to help – and Dr Salisbury confirmed that this was the case.

Dr Salisbury said that the issue of who installs and maintains defibrillators has been raised nationally. There was also some discussion about whether having locked defibs – you have to ring 999 to get a code – was a good idea or not.

Jane noted that women are more likely to die as people are reluctant to remove clothing that exposes breasts.

It was also suggested that a printed list or card with relevant information might be useful.

However, we did agree to consider a project looking at where they are locally, whether they are maintained and can be found on the various apps that are available.

Action: Jane and Elaine to agree an project outline for the PPG to undertake.

6. Patient survey

It was agreed that the PPG will run the annual practice survey in the autumn – probably early October. It will be on-line as well as offering patients in the waiting room paper copies.

The practice would like the majority of the questions to be the same as last year as it allows trends to be recorded about waiting times and patient satisfaction.

We also agreed that the extra questions this year would focus on digital access, especially around the use of Accrux and sending non-urgent messages or replies to the practice.

Many of the PPG have used Accrux via the practice website but all agreed that it was not easy to find and that it was not clear how and when it is used. Everyone agreed that when they did send messages the replies were always very prompt.

We also were surprised that a message service is not available via the NHS App.

Action: Elaine to draft survey and circulate for comments.

7. Autumn COVID and flu vaccinations

The annual flu and COVID vaccination season is due to start at the beginning of October. The two practices at the Health Centre are considering an initial 'big' session on Saturday 3rd October. Note that local pharmacies will also be giving the vaccines and the practice nurses can give them at other times.

Supply issues

The way the flu vaccination system works is that practices buy their own supplies of vaccines. They order them about a year in advance – based on their predicted need. There are different vaccines for over 65s and under 65s. Once vaccination clinics start practices have previously shared, or loaned vaccines to each other according to need.

Jon reported that Sanofi, who supply the vaccine for under 65s have only recently told them of a supply issue (it looks like 2 million vaccines are not usable). This has left practices trying to source alternatives at extremely short notice.

In addition, the regulations have been changed so that practices are no longer able to help each other out by sharing supplies.

However, Jon anticipates that they will be able to get adequate supplies of vaccine.

Eligibility

There was some discussion about whether the COVID vaccine is available for over 80s or over 75s. In July 2026 there was an announcement that it was going to be over 80s as other people were more willing to pay! However, on closer examination this relates to 2027.  For this year it is people over 75.

8. Any other business

There was no time for any other business but after Jon and Dr Salisbury left, we had a constructive discussion about the vision statement.

9. Date of next meeting

To be arranged.

Revised vision statement drafted by the PPG (19th August 2026)

General comments on the revised version:

• The O represents us all
• The O at the top makes sense
• It does need a more professional design
• More crisp (and not waffle)
• Flows better
• Brings out the main points more effectively
• Less values are easier to remember
• It would also work well if printed – for example, on a small card with contact details on the reverse