Agenda item

Dr Chaun Chor to be heard.

The Committee heard from two doctors from the Neaman Practice. The doctors had been invited to attend the Committee following a letter sent to the Clinic by Healthwatch with several complaints against the Practice.

The doctors presented the complaints received and set out the actions they had taken and were continuing to take to resolve the issues raised.

The first complaint concerned rudeness of non-GP staff in the Practice. The doctors confirmed that they have spoken to staff about communication skills and were also looking into formal training.

The second complaint concerned reception staff being rude to each other in front of patients. Members were informed that the Practice has held an emergency staff meeting to remind all staff of what behaviour is expected of them, and, again, are looking into formal training. Managers were also spending time at reception to monitor staff behaviour, with the Practice also holding more frequent support meetings for staff.

The third complaint was that reception staff seemed to be unaware of dates for clinics, in particular for the podiatry clinic. The Neaman Practice hosts a foot health clinic provided by the Homerton Podiatry service. The doctors said that communication with the Homerton Podiatry had been poor, and that this had caused the issue. They accepted that they should have been more proactive in chasing the Homerton service. The Neaman practice has had an urgent meeting with the manager of the foot health clinic and were told that the Foot Health service only provides foot health care to those with ‘high risk’ feet, and could not justify running additional services. The Practice has agreed to improve communication with Foot Health and had also contacted the Foot Health service at Hoxton Health to arrange care for ‘non at risk’ feet.

The fourth complaint was that staff were not always wearing name badges. Staff have been told that they should wear these badges and Managers would be conducting spot-checks. Any repeated failures to wear the badges would result in disciplinary action being taken.

The fifth complaint was that the website was not being updated. The managers accept that the website has been neglected due to the pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The sixth complaint concerned the telephone system. Telephone calls were not being answered, and messages were not being responded to. The doctors explained that they had recently switched to a new provider, and that this had caused several difficulties, on top of challenges with administration and staff. They are exploring solutions to the issues with the new provider and are working on systems to help staff with answering telephone calls.

The seventh complaint referred to poor attendance at the PPG, and a data breach where the email addresses of PPG Members were cc’d instead of bcc’d. The management have apologised to those involved and reviewed their processes. They reported the issue to NRLS, who had responded to state that they considered this to be a data incident but not a breach.

The final complaint was that staff were not wearing face masks appropriately, and that there was a lack of hand gel in hand sanitiser dispensers. The management explained that staff are allowed to pull down masks when answering the phone to improve communication. The lack of hand gel in one hand sanitiser dispenser was an oversight, but management admit that it was in a crucial location. They will work with the cleaning staff to make sure no dispensers are missed.

A Member spoke to state that she was concerned about the Practice’s approach when she had had to obtain a death certificate for a neighbour who died in January 2021. The Member said that no doctor would come to examine the body, and the Member’s husband had to deal with the doctor over the telephone to verify the death. The Member said it was a very distressing experience. The doctors from the Practice apologised to the Member for this experience and explained that the British Medical Association had issued guidance that examinations of bodies should be carried out remotely where possible during theCOVID-19 pandemic. They agreed that in future they would make it an internal policy for doctors to check with carers that they are comfortable with carrying out this inspection remotely.

A Member thanked the doctors for their reply to Healthwatch’s letter and asked if the City of London Corporation could assist in terms of resolving the issues with the Practices phone system. One of the doctors said that the Department for Community and Children’s Services had offered to contact the supplier to help resolve the issue.

A Member expressed concern that, when creating an online account with the Neaman Practice, she was sent a list of several different organisations as possible places to sign up to. She was worried that data could be shared across so many organisations.

RESOLVED – that, the oral update be received.