There’s no doubt that autumn is in full swing – the nights are drawing in and the winter coats are coming out of the cupboard! Here’s a summary of what we were doing in October.
Jim attended a workshop about people who have experienced homelessness or are vulnerably housed. This event followed on from one held in March and this time focused on how organisations across health, social care and the voluntary community sector could support people from the homeless community. He had a good conversation about the importance of enabling homeless people to register with a GP to give them access to health services and support – he was told it can be difficult for people without a permanent address to register with at a GP practice.
Gill started October by hosting meetings of the cross-PCN PPG representatives and the North Dorset PPG leads. These are really friendly, informative meetings where PPG representatives can talk about common issues, and as usual the meetings were very lively! The North Dorset meeting had an excellent presentation from Michelle and Helen from the Dorset Post-Covid Awareness Team at Dorset HealthCare, who support people affected by long COVID. If you would like to meet with other PPG representatives, please do drop Jim or Gill a line and we will do our best to facilitate this. Later in the month Gill met the two newly appointed co-chairs of Wellbridge PPG in Wool to talk about ways of relaunching and reinvigorating their PPG. Gill was also really pleased to be invited again to the Poole Central PCN stakeholder meeting where we talked about the formation of an Integrated Neighbourhood Team (INT) across the locality.
Following the meeting Jim had at the Atrium Health Centre in Dorchester about their award-winning LGBTQ+ display board he met with Weymouth Gay Group, who support people in the Dorset Council area. The group are keen to have more information and signposting for people in the LGBTQ+ community at GP practices and will be working with Jim to create information that can be displayed on GP practice waiting room TV screens. More information about Weymouth Gay Group.
Bere Regis PPG invited Gill along to their meeting where we heard about the planned vaccination clinics. Gill provided a banner and some leaflets to be handed out to clinic patients to help raise awareness of the PPG. Next, Gill went to the meeting of Action for Health and Care in Purbeck. This is a quarterly meeting of PCN representatives, hospital governors, hospital friends, parish councillors, local voluntary and community sector organisations, and PPG representatives to discuss ways of improving the health and wellbeing of residents across Purbeck. This time we were introduced to the newly elected MP for South Dorset, Lloyd Hatton, who talked about how he wanted to work towards improvement and restoration of health services. Gill also met with the Gillingham PPG steering committee where a review of the Terms of Reference was under discussion, and the Sandford PPG where the group met the new practice manager. Lastly, the Birchwood Practice in Poole is looking to form a face-to-face PPG and the practice manager invited Gill along to chat to patients who were interested in finding out more.
Both Gill and Jim attended several health and wellbeing events this month, to promote current health campaigns and to share information about PPGs. Jim went to a community larder in Bournemouth with LiveWell Dorset and Dorset Healthcare’s vaccination team where over 40 people were able to have Covid and flu vaccinations, get their blood pressure checked and browse the information available. He also attended a men’s heath event organised by Weymouth and Portland Primary Care Network where over 100 men were able to get information and talk to people from various organisations about what’s out there for them in the local community.
Gill co-hosted an ICB engagement stand at the Help & Care event at the Village Hotel in Bournemouth where it was really good to see the venue busy with lots of stall holders offering an array of support for patients. Gill also went to Blandford Camp for the next instalment of Blandford Practice’s “Practice on Tour”, a series of health and wellbeing events held on the last Tuesday morning of every month. Due to the usual town centre venue being unavailable, the practice hit on the innovative idea of taking these events out into the surrounding villages, to try to make sure they are connecting with people they seldom hear from.
Jim attended a networking event organised by Weymouth Town Council in October. It was a good opportunity to meet with community groups and organisations working in the area and the speaker for this event was from Dorset Community Foundation who shared information on grants available for local community groups. More information about the organisation and funding streams available is on their website.
We mentioned last month that we’re part of project groups involving the NHS, Local Authority and voluntary community organisations. The groups are called Integrated Neighbourhood Teams (INTs) and the aim is for 18 teams to be established across Dorset with organisations coming together to understand and provide services that meet the local need. Jim is part of an INT working in the Boscombe area and helped deliver a workshop to partners on community conversations, which will provide a much richer understanding of what it’s like to live and access services in the area. Both Gill and Jim will be working with INTs in the future, so watch this space!
The Dorset GP Alliance invited Gill and Jim to attend their event on sustainability and environmental opportunities within GP practices. The keynote speakers included Frome Medical Practice in Somerset, University Hospitals Dorset (UHD) and the Village Practice in Islington. Jim and Gill were really pleased to hear the Village Practice worked with their PPG to introduce more plants at the practice and were involved in a medication blister pack recycling scheme amongst other initiatives at the surgery. If you are interested in developing green initiatives at your practice, please drop Gill or Jim a message.
Following his work with the PPGs in Weymouth and Portland for their digital volunteers initiative, Jim was invited by the West London GP Federation to speak at their workshop on accessing digital health technology. He spoke about how he worked with Weymouth and Portland PPGs, Primary Care Network (PCN) and Dorset Council to help increase the number of people in the area using the internet to manage their health, enabling people without internet access to have better access to their GP practice on the phone.
Outside of work Jim and Kelly went to the fantastic pirate parade in Weymouth, saw the amazing autumnal colour at Sherborne Castle’s gardens and went to see Steve Backshall’s ‘Oceans’ tour at Weymouth Pavilion.
Gill enjoyed two lovely family celebrations: her youngest son got engaged and both families hosted an engagement party for the happy couple followed by her grandson’s third birthday party. And when she wasn’t busy preparing party food, Gill and her husband spent a Saturday afternoon selling poppies for the Royal British Legion.
