Patient Participation Group - AF

What is a PPG?

A Patient Participation Group (PPG) is a patient led group of volunteers who meet regularly. It is a forum to work together with their GP practice to help plan and improve services, offering a patients or carers views on the health services available to them.

What a PPG is not!

The PPG is not a forum to deal with personal medical issues and complaints, any individual concerns should be taken to the Practice Manager. Personal medical issues should be discussed with the Doctor or Nurse who is treating that patient, and not discussed at meetings. PPG/VPPG members should not provide any medical advice to other patients. Ground rules, and codes of contact should clearly state how these issues can be handled during meetings.

The purpose of a PPG is to

Give patients and practice staff the opportunity to meet and discuss topics of shared interest, acting as a ‘critical friend’
Support patients to get involved, and to make suggestions about the services they receive
Constructively consider issues and to monitor themes that emerge from patient feedback. This could be from comments, complaints, surveys; online forums and the Friends and Family Test feedback.
Contribute to action plans and support improvements
Support health awareness, patient education, activities and campaigns, such as healthy eating or flu vaccination events
Help the practice reach out to less heard parts of the practice population
As each PPG develops, they will decide together what they want to do, and each will of course be different.
PPGs can be incredibly helpful in developing, designing and carrying out patient surveys; supporting events; and checking that patient information is understandable, both in leaflets and on the website.

Who?

A PPG is open to every patient registered with the practice; this is the only membership requirement.

We meet every 3-4 months for an hour to discuss. If you would like to come along to the meeting, or if you have any questions please contact the surgery on 01342 823121 or email sxicb-esx.afhc@nhs.net. Please refer to the meeting notes for dates of the next and future meetings.