Participation

“ The action of taking part or being involved in an activity ”

PPG (Patient Participation Group)

The first Patient Participation Group was set up by a GP in 1972 and many general practices in England now have a PPG. Generally made up of a group of volunteer patients, the practice manager and one or more of the GPs from the practice, they meet on a regular basis to discuss the services on offer, and how improvements can be made for the benefit of patients and the practice.
The beauty of PPGs is that there is no set way in which they work - the aims and work of each group entirely depends on local needs - but they are have the aim of making sure that their practice puts the patient, and improving health, at the heart of everything it does.

The practice runs a Patient Participation group that hold 4 meetings a year. The meetings are held at the practice with stakeholders and all patients over the age of 18 are welcome to join. The function of the group is to highlight areas of improvement within the practice and for both the staff to understand patient views and patients to understand what frustrates staff. An annual patient survey is completed by patients through the year and the results published on this website with clear results published so that we as a PPG can improve services in a focused way.

Please call the practice for details of our next PPG, or check the practice notice board which will tell you when we are next meeting. PPG meetings are minuted and all stakeholder members are provided with copies of minutes.

Our current PPG feel that we should focus on patients who Do Not Attend appointments ( in the last six months the practice has lost 545 appointments to patients who have booked and then failed to attend) and also improve access by way of having one clinic a week as a 'walk in ' clinic so no appointments are necessary. But there will be a maximum number of patients that can be seen and if too many patients attend, this could be problematic. We are trying out this new system on Tuesday evenings though and currently it is working.