About the Patient Participation Group

 

We are pleased to say that we currently have a core of approximately 15 - 20 patients who have expressed an interest in being members of the group and are regular attendees at the meetings. This is supplemented by 4 non patient members who are the Practice Development Manager, the Practice Manager, GP and Admin lead.

Action Plan: 2024 - National Patient Survey, Practice-Led Survey, and Local Engagement Results

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The Aims of the Patient Participation Group

"To work with their practice to provide practical support, to help patients take more responsibility for their own health and to provide strategic input and advice. PPGs are based on cooperation between the practice staff and patients".

Purpose of a PPG

  • To give practice staff and patients the opportunity to discuss topics of mutual interest in their own practice.
  • A forum for patients and staff to improve and develop services within the practice by co-production.
  • To provide an opportunity for patients to make positive and constructive suggestions/ideas about the practice and specific medical conditions as an 'expert' or 'experienced patient'.
  • To encourage health education activities within the practice.
  • To involve further patients from the wider population.
  • To involve patient participation in future commissioning of Health Provision.

Benefits for the patient:

  • Patients will be more responsible for their own health.
  • Patients will have a better understanding and knowledge of the practice and its staff.

This allows up to date information to be given to patients and will inform what decisions can be influenced and what cannot. It will also allow the practice staff to gain an understanding from the patient’s perspective. It may also be useful for the chair to have meetings with the Practice Manager on a regular basis or attend management meetings of the practice. This ensures that two way communications are achieved.

  • Patients will have a forum to suggest positive ideas and voice concerns
  • Patients will benefit from improved communications between patients and staff
 

Benefits for the practice:

  • GPs and their staff will be able to plan services jointly with patients in order to increase their effectiveness.
  • They will be able to get help from patients in meeting targets and objectives.
  • They will have a forum to voice concerns, ideas and suggestions to patients.
  • They will get closer to the community for whom they care.

Being Representative

A common criticism of many PPGs is that they are not representative of the practice population. It is always going to be difficult to get a group that exactly reflects the demographics of our practice, and volunteer roles tend to attract those that have a certain level of confidence and free time, and have flexibility about working and earning money. However, a PPG is there to make sure that the patient voice is listened to and not necessarily always to be the voice itself. Therefore if you wish to volunteer please contact the General Manager of complete one of the forms in reception.

 

Ground Rules

These are important as a point of reference for behaviour for when the group meets, and were agreed at the first couple of meetings. We agreed that the group should not be a forum for pursuing individual personal complaints or agendas, that patient confidentiality is of the utmost importance and that everyone on the PPG should be treated fairly, equally and with respect.

 

Communication

We aim to make the group as transparent as possible. We will publish minutes of every meeting on this website. At the members’ request their names have been removed and replaced with their initials but other than that the minutes are a true and accurate reflection of what was discussed and agreed.

We are striving to have a mix of the following people:

  • Active volunteers – people with time and commitments to action decisions
  • Interested professionals – the doctors and administrative staff who work within and know the system and can be co-opted onto the group as required
  • Key supporters – people with influence within your locality, e.g. local councillors, community workers or business people who help raise the profile of the group, and improve the chances of your group finding financial or other forms of support

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Latest Meeting Minutes

  • 8th August 2024
  • 11am
  1. Quick discussion about our last meeting with attendance from SS, AM & JM.
  2. SS filled in the PPG members about the Synnovis Cyber Attack, what happened, where we are now, & what we have been told in the last update meeting. We have from day one been processing anything the GPs marked as ‘urgent,’ & we have now been told all HBA1Cs (Diabetic patients) can be processed. Lots of questions from the group, SS explained that we have waiting lists for our vulnerable patients, & will contact those due blood tests when we are back up and running. For everyone else, texts and Emails will go out informing when we can invite patients to freely book again. This however is a top down decision and not made from a practice level.
  3. GP national patient survey released in July was discussed. Noted details have been included in the August Newsletter which was discussed at the meeting. Action plan noted and welcomed by the PPG. Feedback from SS regarding telephone stats. Reception are doing well and we are down to only missing a few calls a day. Since the new system launched, we have prioritised aiming to bring down the Emails, and have everything done though Accurx. SS discussed the July statistics. 4368 incoming calls. 4102 answered which equates to be 93.9% of all calls answered.
  4. Feedback has been taken on board from previous susgesstions, & we are now pushing patient engagement heavily. SS discussed the way in which the care navigating team now sit every Wednesday out in reception & greet our patients coming in, while attempting to help with any queries about appointments, referrals and online access. Question from JM regarding GP contracts and the BMA work to rule discussions currently going on. He wanted to know if any decisions have been made as a practice about reducing appointments. Informed no concrete decisions have been made, but the GPs have collectively agreed for us to offer more face to face appointments where possible on their shifts. We agreed to bring this to the next meeting when we may know more, & the practice manager AM can attend. LB shared positive feedback on having her brother in law visit, & the way in which the surgery talked him through the best process to get his repeats sent down here to be collected locally, even though he was not able to get to his usual pharmacy. – Lots of praise for the care navigator that took the time to explain, help and make the ordeal feel seamless. SP touched on staffing, and said it was lovely to have our meeting face to face at Christmas.
  5. Introduction of x1 new staff SK who is currently just joined post, & working hard to get up to speed by completing her online mandatory training. Goodbyes to Dr DB, RW, AS, MM & DJ. Warm welcome to the new the new trainees.
  6. LB informed the group of a big development taking place at the top of kirkdale road. She informs us that alone might Bring 100s of new patients to our client list size.
  7. Next meeting date agreed to be: Thursday 7th November