Lizzie and Lina work with Paddington Development Trust (PDT) and they oversee all projects happening in the community, 
Lizzie discussed there are 2 different champions: Community Champions and Maternity Champions which are funded by the public health department, Westminster Council. They have been running for 12+ years now. 

We fall under the North of Westminster area which includes the following: Westbourne, Church Street, Harrow Road and Queens Park.

The funding is given by Westminster Council to the PDT to help recruit 20 local residents who are passionate about their community and to help improve the health and wellbeing of local residents. 

Community Champions focus on general health which includes, physical activities, mental health, looking after your teeth, supporting behaviour change, healthy eating and a wider range of other general health.

The Maternity Champions are trained by the National ChildBirth Trust and specialise in supporting expectant parents. 

The Champions liaise in the community and interact with local residents, friends, family, neighbours, and parents at school gates etc. 

There are lots of weekly activities for those residents that want to join and there are lots of opportunities for volunteers to join the programmes. These experiences can help get volunteers into paid employments as it helps boost confidence, knowledge and they meet interact with lots of different people.

Please see the Grand Union Health Centre website for further information on the Champions and weekly activities currently held around the area and for anyone interested in taking part.

Grand Union has been promoting the NHS APP which is the surgery’s chosen method for all online bookings

The NHS app is easy to navigate and is clear for all patients to see if they have booked face to face appointments or telephone calls. It also allows them to see which doctor is available and book with their chosen GP, to ensure continuity of care.

The NHS App requires patients to have a smart phone. PPG members recently raised concerns that not everyone is confident with smart phone technology and may need help downloading and navigating the app initially.

Grand Union is very excited to announce that on Wednesday 13th March 2024 between 11am – 2pm there will be a pop-up stall in the reception area to help with any questions or concerns patients have in regards to the NHS APP. 

All reminders and information again available on the PPG page of the surgery website.

NM would like PPG members to be informed that all receptionists in the surgery have had telephone triage training.
Patients may have noticed when they contact reception they are asked to provide a brief description as to why they are calling. This is so they can be directed to the most relevant clinician, which may not necessarily be a GP. This ensures all patients have access to the appropriate health care/ health care provider needed.

The surgery has multiple clinicians available including:
GP’s, Physician associates, paramedics, junior doctors, nurses, HCA’s, pharmacists, and a social prescriber.

NM also advises members that the majority of the appointments are same day bookings to deal with urgent, on the day matters
 

Dr NK would like to hear views of the PPG members on the proposed Access Hub by the NHS North West London team which proposes all practices in Northwest London be dealt with in a HUB.

This has been discussed in the national press and the suggested idea is that all same day appointments are directed to a HUB for a clinician to triage over the phone and the clinician will then decide the best course of action and will offer an appropriate appointment with an appropriate clinician.

This means patients may not have contact with their regular GP, if an appointment is needed they will be directed to speak to a clinician at the HUB for advice. 

Also there is no certainty you would be booked to see your preferred GP for continuity of care.

This proposal will scrap all the current services in place at the practises including NHS APPs.

Most PPG members were extremely against the proposal and raised concerns that it would have a significant impact on a patient’s health/care, especially if there is no continuity of care, which may result in a high rate of complaints if patients are seen by different clinicians and possibly may not have the option of speaking to their preferred clinician. 

Also with lots of new medical professionals in the field other than GPs, PPG members were concerned they may be regularly referred to an alternative clinician and not have as much access to their GP of choice.

All staff and patients who are against the proposal will stand with GP practises to ensure they are not restricted from accessing their own GP/ surgery.

Lizzie also wanted to add that the community champions previously ran a campaign called the ‘Right of Care’ which was a local discussion on where to go, who to contact for any health issues and the majority of the feedback echoed those concerns voiced today.

Local residents stated that they are happy with the services their local surgery offers and always feel they have the option to register elsewhere if they want to. 
Patients like the continuity of care with their GP and like to be able to see familiar staff and have in person contact. 

Dr ET informed PPG members that the surgery is currently running a project in the practice which is designed by Grand Union Health Centre Clinicians to help a specific group of patients that do not currently have access to any specific regular health checks. 

We are offering the age group 30-39 year olds a health check as this is the age likely to develop any early changes such as blood pressure, pre-diabetes. 
Therefore, we have introduced this health check to help possibly identify health issues early.

This is an addition to our everyday health care/ appointments and therefore we are inviting this age group in small bulks at this time.

NM reminded members that the surgery has a new BP machine in the reception area which is linked to the patient’s medical records, it can check height, weight, blood pressure and BMI and readings and will automatically save to the patient’s records. 

Be advised an appointment is not needed to use this machine – you can pass by and use the machine at any time.
 

Dr Turner informed PPG members that we have new flowers/planters at the entrance of the surgery which was initiated by a trainee doctor and funded by Westminster council.

Grand Union has been working with the Hammersmith Community Gardening (HCG) Association to get some gardening projects done at the surgery.
The HCG are very keen to involve the practice, patients and anyone else who is interested, to join their team and the director of the Gardening association emailed Dr ET recently to say they have secured more funding from Westminster council to fund gardening projects as part of the health community programmes and would be happy us to direct anyone to them who is interested in volunteering. 

WB raised concerns that over 10 years ago a similar project was funded by Westminster Council to plant trees every 10 yards in the area by volunteers, but unfortunately by-passers/people would use the base of the tree to dump waste and rubbish.
WB is aware there are schemes elsewhere which have allowed for barriers to be put around the base of the trees to stop people from dumping waste there. 

Lizzie informed members that there is a new champions project called Green Climate with a small budget at the moment and WB concerns is a great example to tackle through the new Green Climate Project. 

All contact details will be on the PPG page of the surgery website. 
 

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