We are an advisory group of patients whose members work voluntarily with the surgery, acting as ‘critical friends’ to help the practice improve services for the patient population.

The practice feels it will be extremely beneficial to have patient involvement and that the group’s constructive and challenging views help the surgery to better understand the patient perspective and be more responsive in their service delivery.

Why have a PPG?

The delivery of general practice is changing under the new NHS and the practice continues to face a variety of challenging government objectives and priorities, which are continually changing. General practice is the most commonly used point of access in the NHS. 90% of those who use general practice services will be diagnosed and treated without being referred for further specialist treatment. Current government policy therefore aims to improve both access to services locally and patient choice.

As healthcare is being brought closer to the patient, the practice is being required to ‘deliver’ more each year, for which they have no increase in the resources available to them. It is therefore important that these resources are used wisely and that the patient perspective is considered.

The group provides a forum to work with the practice on a variety of areas, including such issues as:

• Considering service suggestions which could benefit groups of patients or individuals, providing a patient perspective
• Assisting in evaluating and prioritising demands on our resources
• Determining responses to patient satisfaction questionnaires and forming suitable action plans to address patient concerns
• Acting as a sounding board for future surgery plans
• Improving communication between patients and the surgery
• Considering specific operational issues as raised from time to time
• Acting as a forum to discuss complaint trends to seek improvements or determine appropriate courses of action
• Acting as patient support for specific events

The practice is keen to work in partnership with the group and it is hoped that this approach will help to influence the provision of health and social care locally within the wider health community.

We are not a forum for individual agendas or personal complaints. Complaints must be made directly to the practice to comply with the standardised NHS Complaints Procedure and be handled under a strict code of confidentiality.

If you have a complaint, please either speak to the duty manager or pick up the practice information leaflet on complaints.

Patient Group Meetings

The group meets approximately every 6 months. Dates of forthcoming meetings will be emailed to members.

Whilst the group aims to be representative of the patient users of the practice services, the members are not considered delegates of the population and it is recognised that the views expressed are based on their own experiences.

How can I get involved?

If you are interested in becoming involved please do provide us with your contact details by clicking on the link opposite.