Kidwelly Surgery Update

The latest meeting in the series of meetings between the Health Board and the Labour Party team representing Kidwelly was held on 22^nd December 2016. The Labour Team representing Kidwelly of Nia Griffith MP, (accompanied by Suzy Curry, her Senior Parliamentary Assistant), Cllr. Ryan Thomas (the County Councillor for Kidwelly), Cllr. Mike Thomas and Cllr. Philip Thompson (both Kidwelly Town Councillors). The Health Board was again represented at a senior level team of Rachel Pompa, Head of General Medicine and Anne Jenkins, the Practice Manager of Meddygfa Minafon.

Following the meeting Nia Griffith MP and Councillors Ryan Thomas, Mike Thomas and Philip Thompson in consultation with Lee Waters AM, who has been actively pursuing the surgery’s issues in the Senedd, released the following statement:

“At this meeting we had further positive discussions on amongst other things:

1: Recruitment: The Surgery has been able to recruit a further three part time GPs including one woman doctor to support the existing GP complement.  Whilst this means that there is now over 2 FTE GPs we are all concerned that this is still short of the full establishment of 5 GPs. The Health Board has assured us that it is still actively seeking to recruit further GPs including using recruitment consultants beyond the UK. We were pleased to hear that it has received further expressions of interest from practitioners in being appointed the surgery. The Health Board also pointed out that the range of integrated support services now available in the surgery was making it more attractive to potential recruits and that locum cover would continue to be provided.

It was agreed that the situation would be kept under review at future meetings.

2:  Telephone Triage service: Following on from the sudden withdrawal of the Rosedale Group from its commitment to run a practice in Llanelli, concerns were raised with the Health Board about the possibility of this happening to the telephone triage service. (Nia Griffith and Suzy Curry having both been directly involved in safeguarding the local community’s interests in the fall out from the withdrawal from the practice in Llanelli).

 In response to questions about the contract the Health Board gave assurances that the contractor was a different section of the Rosedale Group and was contractually bound to the provision of the telephone service and could not leave without giving a minimum three months’ notice.

3: Monitoring: The GP and telephone services are being monitored and there has been a recent patient questionnaire has received a good response and the CHC will be analysing both this survey and the monitoring of the telephone line. In response to questions about the possibility of sending out the questionnaire to all registered patients, the Health authority confirmed this had not been done at this time owing to the large number of registered patients and the logistical and financial burden of this.

It was noted that following the implementation of the steps that had been discussed in our talks, both that the number of attendances at A & E by patients from the area had dropped and that GP appointments were now regularly available in the surgery and some had even been unfilled.

4: Ante Natal Clinics: We noted our ongoing concern and disappointment that the plan to split the provision between Trimsaran and Kidwelly on alternate weeks so that residents in both areas can access the service without excessive travel had not yet been actioned and pressed as to the reasons for this and for it to occur as a matter of urgency.

We were assured that the Health Board and the surgery had made provision for this, but there was a delay in the midwifery service actioning this, due to “resourcing” issues. We pressed for this to be progressed and actioned as a matter of urgency and for us to be updated as to progress. 

6: Minutes of Public Meeting:  It was agreed that these would be made available to us.

7: Facebook Page: All parties agreed that it was a pity this had not yet gone live, due in large part to the Health Authority’s difficulty in providing the service bi-lingually. Recruitment is hoped to take place by the end of January 2017 to the Health Board’s translation service. In the interim we asked the Health authority to look at alternative providers to facilitate the earlier launch of what all agreed would be an important and innovative service providing important communication and information with and to the community.

8: Patient Participation Group; A meeting will be held in January, with a good take up following the public meeting of volunteers.

9: Disabled Parking and non-compliant access: the issue of the parking provision for disabled people and the safety concerns about the ramp were raised again and all involved agreed that the lack of action by the Health Authority’s Estates Department in progressing this needed following up. (Immediately following the meeting we received confirmation from Anne Jenkins that this had been done), and we will continue to push for developments.

10: Prescription & Blood Pressure Reviews: Following concerns raised we were assured that the reviews were flagged and programmed on the surgery computer and that they were being carried out. We were further assured that there was no agenda to reduce drug costs by the surgery’s in house pharmacist and that reviews of repeat prescriptions were undertaken in accordance with professional guidelines and standards.”

Speaking after the meeting Kidwelly Councillor Phil Thompson commented “As the Labour Party team representing the community at all levels here in Kidwelly and Mynydd y Garreg, we are pleased that we have been able to work with the Health Board to make progress and will continue to work to ensure our community gets the best possible local health care.”