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Patient Group
Our Patient Group (PG) meets to provide a forum for discussion about the practice.
Welcome from the Woodlands’ Patient Group Chair, Keith Allen
Every registered patient of the Woodlands’ Practice is entitled to belong to its Patient Group (PG). Our message is: “Patients and Practice, working in Partnership.” We exist to help improve services for patients.
Patient Group Committee Members:
- Lay members: Keith Allen (Chair), Wendy Price (Vice-Chair), Flavia Leslie, Kevin Fitzgerald, Barbara Capps, Mary Harrison, Jim Sayers, Gaynor Thomas, Valerie Thwaites, Geraldine Gadsby
- Practice members: Dr Helen Miles (Practice Partner representative), Kathryn Hall (Practice Manager) and Caroline Bodinham (Assistant Practice Manager)
Joining the Patient Group (PG):
If you would like to be kept informed about the work of our Patient Group, please let us know via this form. We will add a code to your record to ensure that you receive regular communication from the Patient Group and the Practice. If you no longer wish to hear from us, please use this form and ask us to remove that code from your record.
Further information
Patient Group Terms of Reference
Overall mission: Patients and Practice, working in Partnership
Membership:
- Membership of the Patient Group is free, voluntary, unpaid and open to all Patients of the Woodlands Medical Centre
- The business of the PPG is conducted by a Committee comprising up to 10 Patients, plus the Practice Manager and a Practice Partner
The PPG Committee aims to:
- give voice to Patients’ interests
- act as a critical friend to the Practice
- help with communication to Patients from the Practice
Committee meetings will:
- normally be four times a year, plus an AGM before the end of June
- be managed by a Chair and Vice-Chair selected from the patient-members, with support from the Practice Manager, who acts as Secretary and Treasurer
- produce minutes that will be published on the Practice website
The PPG Committee will:
- endeavour to understand the general concerns and needs of the wider patient group
- work with the Practice to identify potential improvements in its service
- work with the Practice to organise health-focussed events
- endeavour to keep Patients informed on key issues
The PPG Committee will not:
- provide medical advice to patients
- deal with personal/medical issues
- address individual patient complaints
Additional practical information:
- All patients of Woodlands may request that their names be added to the mailing list for the wider Patient Group. These people will be emailed with information on surveys and events, and with copies of newsletters.
- In addition to the quarterly PPG Committee meetings, the Committee will conduct much of its business via email. Committee members who are unable to attend regularly may be asked to vacate their positions on the Committee.
- When there are vacancies on the Committee, the wider Patient Group will be contacted in order to identify new possible members.
- The quorum for Committee meetings is at least one of the Practice Manager and a Practice Partner, the Chair or Vice-Chair and at least 2 other members.
- The PPG Committee holds a small discretionary fund for activities that support the overall mission.
- Advance notice of the AGM will be sent to the wider Patient Group at least 4 weeks before the meeting.
- Extraordinary General Meetings may be called at the discretion of the Committee or upon receipt of written requests from 10 Patients. At least 2 weeks’ notice will be given of an EGM.
- Patients who wish their names to be withdrawn from the wider Patient Group should contact the Practice
Latest PPG Meeting Minutes
Thursday 16th April 2026
Attendees
- Present: Flavia Lesley (Chair), Wendy Price (Vice-Chair) Kevin Fitzgerald, Barbara Capps, Mary Harrison, Valerie Thwaites, Geraldine Gadsby, Keith Allen
- Apologies: Jim Sayers, Gaynor Thomas
Minutes from last meeting and matters arising from those minutes
The minutes from the previous meeting in January were approved.
The session for helping people get online with the NHS App at the Community Café on Friday 13th February with Aston online went ahead as planned, but sadly no one attended the session.
The committee asked about the plans to hold a scam awareness session with support from Age UK. KH explained that she had been liaising with the contact at Age UK but had not yet managed to firm up a date for a session.
The committee considered other options for education events for patients. Dr Wilson is still intending to hold a session for older patients who are thinking about end of life planning but we do not have a confirmed date. Dr Lazz is also keen to hold an education session on a suitable topic. It was suggested that pre-diabetes might be a useful subject. Other suggestions were prostate cancer awareness and also how to give CPR. We discussed the difficulties in securing attendance at the meetings and also how best to find out what sessions would be useful for patients. KH suggested that when we invite people to the planned education meeting, we could try and ask for a RSVP and also suggested times and topics to understand what might suit patients best.
Action: KH to liaise with Dr Lazz about pre-diabetes education session.
Practice Update:
Development at Great Western Park
KH explained that a new developer called Henley Medical has been appointed and work is continuing on the project. The previous design team will be moving across to the new developer and planning permission has already been granted so it should allow us to proceed without needing to go back and do everything again. There is currently an indicative completion date of November 2028.
Staffing including doctors, nurses and admin staff
- Doctors: The practice is currently advertising for 2 GPs. One is to support the growth in list size and the other is due to an existing doctor relocating for family reasons.
- Nursing: The practice is also advertising for another practice nurse in order to support the wider nursing team with capacity and also to enable the practice to support the nurse associate team to undertake further training and study to become fully fledged nurses.
- Administrative Staff: The admin team is fully staffed at the moment which is great news. KH explained that she is looking at a different model for staffing to support notes summarising for new patient records. When patients move to the practice, their notes will either transfer electronically or they will arrive as a large pile of paper which needs to be reviewed to identify key information such as immunisations and important health conditions or surgical procedures, so these can be coded on the new record. The practice has had a lot of success with recruiting sixth form students who are considering studying medicine to undertake the notes summarizing role on a parttime basis. However, the volume of records has increased and the student staffing is not keeping pace with the workload. KH also explained that she encourages the students to prioritise their studies so during exam season, there are less hours to cover the workload. Some of the existing reception team are keen to take on some additional hours and responsibility so they are training up on notes summarising.
Dr Leach has recently left the practice. One new doctor, Dr Anna Magnusson, has been recruited. The practice has recently advertised for another doctor and interviews are underway. Dr Pathinayake is unfortunately still off sick. There is some locum support from Dr Rachel Whitefield.
Patient list size
The practice list size is currently just over 19,000 patients.
Healthcare Assistants
Two new HCAs have been recruited to help maintain capacity for blood tests, annual health reviews, and other tests and injections. They are due to start at the beginning of November.
Appointment System
The committee reported that they are generally finding the appointment system is working well. VT was concerned that older patients might be struggling with the online form and expressed concern about how long it is available in the mornings. KH explained that they always allow for some capacity each day to support patients who may be a bit older or struggling with the online form and for these patients, the reception team will complete a form on their behalf.
If the practice has a lot of successful signposting for patients to other services or matters are resolved without the need for an appointment, we will consider reopening the medical form to allow additional patient requests to be put through safely. However, if there are just a few spaces left, we will keep those for urgent queries that usually come through over the phone.
KH explained that signposting patients to use 111 is a legitimate service to use when the practice is busy and they are set up to provide 24/7 clinical triage for patients. 111 also have access to some dedicated appointments in the practice for patients who are urgent for that day but don’t need to go to A&E.
Any Other Business
Members of the committee provided some feedback that it might be helpful to have more exit signs in the building, and also some pictorial signs for the stairs. They also advised that they had received feedback to say it is difficult for patients to identify when their clinic room is located upstairs. Although this is shown on a TV screen behind reception, the screen is difficult to see due to being partially obscured by the reception desk screen and it is also difficult to check if there is a queue of patients waiting to speak to the receptionist. KH explained that the screen had been erected during covid, but that the staff have felt quite threatened at times and therefore asked to keep it in place. KH advised that she will discuss this at the next reception team meeting and also consider some other options to improve the visibility for identification of where the clinic room is.
We discussed a potential date for the AGM. KH agreed to check with the Civic Hall about the possibility of the 17th or 18th June. FL said that she had been chair for 5 years and was very happy if someone else would like to step forward and take a turn.
Date and Time of Next Meeting
Thursday 11th June at 10:30am at Woodlands Medical Centre.
Patient Participation Group Annual General Meeting Minutes
18th June 2026
Update from Chair, Flavia Leslie
Mrs Leslie reminded the audience that the role of the Patient Participation Group Committee is to act as a critical friend to the Practice and to represent the interests of patients registered at Woodlands Medical Centre. They will work with the practice to try and improve the experience for patients. Over the last year, the Committee has worked with the practice to understand the pressure on the phone system and the change to requesting appointments online but also ensuring that patients who need to phone in can still do so. They have reflected the mixed experience of patients using the online form.
They have observed the difficulties seeing the room board screen behind reception and the practice has responded by reducing the size of the reception desk screen to improve visibility.
They have recommended education talks on dying matters and also pre-diabetes. The two recently held education sessions have been excellent although it is recognised that sometimes the people who need that information most may not be able to attend.
At the last committee meeting we discussed the difficulties understanding the pathway for accessing physiotherapy and will work with the practice to improve the information available to patients to explain this better.
Treasurer’s Report
The committee has a sum of £229.34. This money sits within the business account for Woodlands Medical Centre but is understood to be ringfenced for the discretional use by the PPG Committee. It is understood that recent education talks and room hire have been funded by the practice. It was suggested that this money might be added to and further funds raised for a future purchase of something for the new practice building on Great Western Park.
Committee Membership
It was agreed and confirmed to reappoint the existing committee members to continue to serve on the committee.
Mrs Leslie advised that she was stepping down as Chair of the committee but would remain as a member of the committee. It was proposed that Mr Keith Allen be appointed as Chair of the Committee and this was approved.
The practice and the committee presented Mrs Leslie with a Rose bush to thank her for her work on the committee over the last few years.
Update from the Practice,
Presentation by Dr Adam Jones, Senior Partner
Dr Jones gave a verbal update about the practice as the presentation equipment was not working at the Civic Hall that afternoon.
He explained that whilst it is often the case that the senior partner at a GP practice is the most senior doctor in the building, at Woodlands Medical Centre they have decided to have a rotational approach to ensure that the leadership role remains positive and relevant and that the person in that role is able to remain fresh
He gave an update on the plans for the new build on Great Western Park. The original developer was too expensive and so the project became unaffordable. A new developer has been appointed – Aspley Henley Medical. They have brought over the original design team and we are now in the active second stage of design which involves a more detailed plan for the layout of individual rooms and making sure that the building has flexibility for use of the space in the future. According to the planning timetable, they will start physical work on site at the end of March 2027 and the building should open 18 months later. He advised that we are cautiously optimistic.
Dr Jones then gave a brief overview of how the role of the GP practice might change over the next 10 years with the 10 year plan. The aim of the 10 year plan is to organise areas into Neighbourhoods and Multi-Neighbourhoods in order to structure service support more holistically including other interventions such as social support or housing. However, there isn’t really a firm plan of what this will look like yet. He also explained that funding is being prioritised for more deprived areas and explained that Didcot is in the 10% least deprived in the country and so doesn’t qualify for extra resources. He also talked about emerging technology including AI which is already being used as a signposting tool to help patients get to the right place quicker. The practice is starting to use an AI scribe to help with writing consultations and referral letters but this is only with patient consent.
Brief presentation from new Chair, Keith Allen
Mr Allen explained that he joined the committee 18 months ago but has a background working in schools and education. He is keen to work with the practice to improve services for patients and also keen to understand what patients want, but more importantly, what they need. The committee has recently reviewed the PPG constitution and created a fresh Terms of Reference.
Mr Allen was very positive about the recent recruitment of two new doctors who have both trained at Woodlands and were keen to remain at the practice once qualified.