Nov. 24, 2025
Agenda
The House Partnership PPG - Including HEALTH CHAMPIONS
NOTES OF MEETING HELD ON 24th November 2025 AT 6.30PM
Caterham Valley Medical Practice, Caterham
Apologies:
KH
DM
JW
Minutes
TH as the host at CVMP welcomed everybody to the meeting and advised that this was the first joint PPG meeting of all three practices comprising of The House Partnership. TH advised that there were two presentations for the meeting. The first presentation was from DE, member of the Health Champions at CVMP, who outlined a proposal to establish a ‘Pain Management’ group at CVMP. Enduring pain from a number of health conditions can be debilitating but membership of a mutually supporting group with similar experience may be helpful.
The second presentation was from Samuel Camps, owner of Caterham Chiropractic Clinic which fortunately is located in the same building as CVMP. Samuel outlined the various treatments available for joint & muscle ailments and emphasised that pain does not necessarily have to be endured in many cases. It was an interesting and enlightening presentation with a number of attenders attesting to the efficacy of treatments.
Finance Report.
LAR advised that the current balance stands at £579.75 as £89 had been received from the sale of ‘hedgehogs’ at GH reception and suggested that we might wish to consider expenditure of £300 or so, on something that will benefit patient care. Thanks to JS for her hedgehog production.
Practice Updates
Jacquie Clayson updated the meeting with news from Moat House surgery as follows:-
· The new Practice Manager appointed at Moat House is Nicola Brown, currently Assistant Practice Manager at Greystone House, and she will start in the New Year once her position has been filled. A well-deserved promotion for Nicola – Congratulations!
· The merger of the clinical systems from CVMP and THP is due to occur over the weekend of 17-21st April 2026, and we are aiming to arrange for a letter to be posted to all CVMP patients in the New Year.
· Benefits of the mergers are being realised as time goes on by offering services only provided by one practice to the others, e.g. a sophisticated Doppler Machine for assessing pulses for dressings. Nurses also work across sites if one of the practices are short of capacity.
· Rochelle, a Physician Assistant at Moat House will be returning from maternity leave in January.
· Dr Ellis will be moving to Greystone House, and Dr Wallbank and Dr Khalafpour, two experienced GPs, will be starting at Moat House in the New Year.
· With triage, we are looking to improve the experience for our patients who may need us more by introducing a Care Coordinator as a dedicated point of contact for them. This person will be proactive and will aim to ensure these patients receive the most appropriate care for their health conditions.
· We are looking at A1/ software packages to free up time and enable staff and clinicians to be more productive. One package streamlines entry of consultations and dictation of referrals, a second package assists with making every contact with a patient count and ensures we do everything a patient might need with respect to monitoring medications, recalls for reviews etc.
Rachel Lynch updated the meeting with news from Greystone House surgery as follows:-
· One new GP is in training at Greystone House, Dr Biamba Bestman who will be with us for over a year.
· Vacancies - We currently have vacancies for reception hours following some recent staff retirements and leaving.
· New Nurses Joining – We have a new Practice Nurse, Bethany Every, joining the team in January 2026 and we currently have a locum Practice Nurse, Hilda Blankson, working within the team since the end of October, who we hope may join the team on a permanent basis in the new year.
· GP Maternity Position – We are recruiting for a fixed term maternity cover at The House Partnership as Dr Poppy Noot-Davies based at Greystone House is starting maternity leave in January 2026.
Caroline Towers updated the meeting with news from CVMP as follows:-
· Caterham Valley are experiencing high demand and winter pressures in light of the change NHSE made to our contract from 1 October which now means we are unable to ask patients to contact us another day even though we are operating at capacity. To manage this we now have to have more GPs triaging requests to make sure nothing urgent is missed so we have fewer face to face appointments to offer. We have recruited an Advanced Nurse Practitioner to help with demand so that they are able to see patients with minor illnesses.
· Caroline advised that CVMP have 14,000+ registered patients at the practice
Any Other Business
A patient at Moat House surgery raised an issue whereby a friend at the practice had been diagnosed with wet/dry? macular degeneration by their optician who had sent a referral to Moat House. Apparently, the referral was not dealt with as speedily as the circumstances required as these conditions will usually require an onwards referral to the eye clinic at ESH for urgent care to avoid further deterioration. JC to investigate and advise on the circumstances.
Regretfully, Rachel Lynch – Practice Manager at Greystone House will be leaving The House Partnership (THP) on 12th February to further her career elsewhere. Our best wishes to Rachel for her past support and we wish her well in her new position. Fran Lemanska, currently Practice Manager at Pond Tail Surgery in Godstone will be joining THP as Practice Manager at Greystone House on 23rd February.