Have you ever thought about joining our Patient Participation Group (PPG)?

A PPG is a group made up of volunteer patients and members of practice staff who work together to improve the experience of patients using the practice. The NHS requires every practice to have a PPG.

Your experiences matter and you can bring different ideas to the surgery to help us treat patients better or to improve what we do in some way. You will also gain a better understanding of how the practice operates; a better understanding of the role and workload of all practice staff; the financial and governance challenges we face; the NHS, and gather feedback from other patients.

Your views are important and will be listened to. It may not be possible to act on every suggestion, but all feedback is very valuable. Working in a spirit of mutual respect, openness and trust, all patients’ views will be discussed and, where appropriate, we will work together on solutions.

Patient participation is not a vehicle for individuals to voice personal interests, resolve personal issues or to get additional personal medical service. Rather, it aims to bring about positive change to the benefit of all patients and practice staff.

Aims of the Group

Patient participation is about patients and practices working together to:

• Improve communication between practice staff and patients
• Enable patients to look after their own health, with the support of the practice staff
• Discuss topics of mutual interest to the practice and patients
• Encourage improvements within the practice
• Increase patent satisfaction with the service they receive.