About Patient Participation Groups
All GP Surgery’s in England have a contractual requirement to have a PPG and it is expected for CQC inspections.
The group should be made up of volunteer patients, senior practice managers and one or more GP’s or clinicians. The group should aim to have a cross-section of patient members and have a patient Chair, Secretary and hold regular meetings – monthly or quarterly and as activity demands. Costs should be funded by the practice.
The practice must engage with the PPG including obtaining patient feedback and, where the practice and PPG agree, will act on suggestions for improvement.
The PPG aims to implement real, positive change in the community. Patients have long valued the relationship with their GP and the practice. However, the dynamics in recent years have changed with patients’ expectations increasing. Patients want more say in their healthcare, are better informed and expect to be treated as whole people, not just as a condition or ailment.
PPG’s have an increasingly important role in helping to give patients a say in the way services are delivered to best meet their needs, and the needs of the local community. The PPG can help GPs to develop an equal partnership with their patients. They can help them to communicate accurately and honestly with individual patients, and with the wider community about key health matters. They can also help to reduce costs and improve services by identifying changes that the practice may not have considered, allowing resources to be used more effectively and efficiently. They can help develop mutually supportive networks for patients and the practice.
Experience shows that successful practices and effective PPG’s go hand in hand.
PPG’s can play a number of roles including:
- Advising the practice on the patient perspective
- Organising health promotion events
- Communicating with the wider patient body
- Running volunteer services and support groups to meet local needs
- Influencing the practice and the wider NHS to improve commissioning
- Carrying out research into the views of those who use the practice (and their carers)
If you wish to participate please contact the Practice or complete the online form by clicking on the button shown below, and the Patient Services Manager will be in touch with you.
OR: if you prefer, you can download the sign-up form below, print it out, fill it in, and post it to the Practice, put it through the letterbox, or hand it to a Care Navigator.
We aim to acknowledge your request within a few days.
Please note that the PPG cannot become involved in matters of a specifically medical or clinical nature.
Minutes of Meetings
The National Association of Patient Participation
This association aims to promote the role and benefits of PPGs to patients, the public and health professionals, to create more understanding of the value of true patient participation also to promote the support available from N.A.P.P. Find out more about them click here.
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