Patient Participation Group

• Dr Steve Amiel (SA)
• Dr Kevin Clarkson (KC)
• Fay Saunders (Practice Manager - FS)
• Dawn Williams-Powell (Deputy Practice Manager - DW-P)

• Kathy Elliott (Chair - KE)
• Roderick Allison
• Mick Farrant (MF)
• Kate Harwood (KH)
• Cynthia Jensen
• Tim Kirkup (TK)
• Bernard Miller (BM)
• Elisabeth Monck (EM)
• Diane Pearson (DP)
• Simon Pearson (SP)
• Dr Angharad Price -GP registrar

• Judith Philo
• Annette Thomas

• Alice Jones

KE welcomed all those attending,

The minutes of the meeting on 28.10.2025 were agreed.

DW-P ran over the main points of the Practice Update.

The new toenail-cutting service was particularly welcomed.

On the flood SA added that Thames Water (TW) had admitted liability and agreed a schedule of works for rebuilding, which was expected to cost £600,000. It was hoped that work would start in 2 weeks. The practice was still pursuing with TW compensation for indirect losses caused by the flood.

The River of Hope festival is currently running. The practice is working in partnership with Camden Council; Kentish Town Connects and Camden ANCHOR on this project.

As part of the project a number of small grants to support Health & Wellbeing have been given out and events will be run between now and the end of March.

As part of this year’ festival we are creating a sewen version of the Rover of Hope Map – stitching sessions are every Tuesday in Kentish Town Library on a Tuesday 2pm till 4pm until the 17th March.

To get involved in the River of Hope you can sign up for Newsletter updates via this site. Have Your Say Today - River Of Hope - Commonplace & we have some A5 flyers if anyone is interested.

Kentish Town Pedals – the community bike ride from the practice on the first Saturday of the month, continues to go from strength to strength. If you would like to join please sign up for the ride here & if you don’t have a bike, no problem we have some you can borrow.

We are also pleased to let you know that a similar ride is being established in the Kilburn area, no surprise in the name Kilburn Pedals & details of these rides can be found here. Its is good to see some of our good practices been replicated elsewhere.

This group aimed at Dementia Carers has been running since May 2024 and has a solid core of regular attenders who find it very supportive and helpful on both a practical and emotional level. The meeting occurs on the first Tuesday of the month at 2pm usually in the Sun Room at KTHC and lasts an hour.

It is facilitated by Dr Nori Graham who was one of the Care of the Elderly psychiatrists at the RFH for many years until she retired. She continues to have a big role in Alzheimer's Society. If this is of interest to you please contact Dr Nori Graham explaining your interest and she will get in touch. Attendance needs to be arranged with Dr Graham beforehand its not a walk in session.

Helping Hands & Digital Inclusion have had a “flood rest” but will be coming back end of Feb/beginning of March.

Falls Education: Falls prevention workshops are delivered through the Recovery College every 6 weeks either in person or virtually. Promotion and sign up is done via the College and individual can self-nominate themselves.

We have been in touch with the team organising these to see if we could host a face-to-face falls workshop here at The Caversham or at The Peckwater Centre & we have a date 24th March 1:30pm to 4pm. If you are interested, please contact Jackie Tumelty

TK raised the issue of NHS screening arrangements, which seemed somewhat haphazard, and asked for the practice's comments.

SA said screening was extremely important for spotting potential problems early; the practice had a team tasked with calling patients who needed screening and encouraging the "hard to reach" to attend. But different conditions required different screening arrangements. For some, e.g. cervical screening, there is a national screening programme with which the Practice had to comply. For others, a balance had to be struck between necessary and unnecessary screening; the latter could be unhelpful, especially in the case of conditions where the tests currently available were liable to give false results. The practice updates arrangements in response to new evidence and guidance.

In discussion the question was raised of the age restrictions on invitations to be immunised against shingles. SA said there was a national shortage of anti-shingles vaccine, so invitations had to be concentrated on the age groups most at risk.

EM asked about the practice’s leadership and approach to prevention. SA gave examples.

KE said that following the PPG's successful campaign to keep the Peckwater Centre as Camden's primary care hub a Peckwater Advisory Group had been set up on which the practice and PPG were represented. The Practice Newsletter (Winter 2026) had a section on the Peckwater, and the services now co-located there.

KC said the hope was that co-location would lead to better communication and co-operation between services. We did not yet know how this was working for patients - feedback on this would be welcome - but his instinct was that things were going in the right direction. He would like to see more flexible use of the Centre's space; FS said the practice's current request for use of the gym would be a test of this. PPG members were interested in understanding more about some of the services, for example diabetes. KC explained that they were the community health services and how they were improving the links to the practice for the benefit of patients. Another early benefit is that Registrars working in the practice are now able to learn firsthand about community services. He was hopeful that there would be more information about access and use of the services, plus what was working well (or not) at the Advisory Group in March.

It was suggested that Peckwater services might be invited to give presentations to the PPG.

KE said the Peckwater had held an Open Day which had aroused different reactions. She had been impressed by the presence of plenty of staff from the different services who were competent to answer questions. SP on the other hand said he had found the event far too noisy.

KE emphasised that feedback on the Peckwater’s services would be welcome and would be particularly useful before the next Advisory Group meeting on 10 March.

FS said north London practices were required to ask a sample of patients 3 questions about the effort the practice made to listen to their concerns (the CollaboRATE survey) and to obtain at least 25 responses. The Caversham had asked 250 patients with chronic conditions and had received 39 replies, a summary of which was presented to the PPG Please see presentation on the website. These gave a very positive response to the practice's efforts, with a clear improvement over the previous year.

In discussion EM criticised the survey on the ground that 39 responses were too few to give a basis for valid conclusions to be drawn. BM and KH said that patients could assess their own satisfaction but couldn't really assess the effort the practice had made. FS pointed out that these criticisms should be directed not to the practice but to the North Central London Integrated Care Board (ICB) which set the questions to be asked and set the number of responses needed; practices were required to carry out the survey as specified by the ICB. There were questions raised about who held the data after it was submitted by the practice to the ICB (Integrated Care Board). KE continues to be interested in what information about patient outcomes and feedback is available to the Patient Participation Group.

MF said blood test forms had first to be collected from the Caversham and then taken to the blood test venue. It would save patients an unnecessary journey if they could have the form emailed to them or could collect it at the venue. SA said unfortunately the form as currently designed was unsuitable for emailing, but he agreed the arrangements were unsatisfactory and the alternatives suggested by MF would be better.

MF asked whether fitting of a heart monitor could be done at the practice. SA said the practice could do blood pressure fitment but not fitting of a heart monitor.

KH said UCLH gave patients a telephone contact number from which no answers could ever be obtained. It would be helpful if the practice could draw this to UCLH's attention.

She also drew attention to free movement and dancing sessions held in Camden Square. She would bring in a flyer about these for display in the waiting room. DP added that exercise sessions at the James Wigg, organised by Creative Health, were open to Caversham patients.

There was good feedback on the Cryotherapy Service.

KE pointed out that dates of future PPG meetings were given on the agenda (and included below.

Suggestions for items for discussion were welcome. One subject for discussion, she felt, was how best the PPG could a) listen to patients and b) represent them. After the meeting there was interest expressed in learning more about the Dementia Service that is in the Peckwater.

KE thanked people for attending and sharing experience and concerns.

• Wednesday May 6th - PPG Meeting hybrid teams & in person 5pm to 6:30pm
• Wednesday 29th July - PPG Meeting hybrid teams & in person proposing 5:30pm to 7pm
• Wednesday 25th November - PPG Meeting hybrid teams & in person 2pm to 3:30pm