What is the role of the Patient Participation Group?
At its simplest, patient participation refers to patients who wish to take a more active interest in developing local healthcare services.
The idea is for patients and staff to work together to share ideas to help patients to take more responsibility for their own health and help improve the services offered at the practice. It gives patients a say in how services are planned, developed and evaluated, by developing a good working relationship with the practice staff and GPs.
The PPG will seek to improve communications through the practice website along with the use of notice boards and direct communications within the Practice e.g. articles in the patient newsletters.
More about what a PPG can do
- Assist in communicating to patients how recent changes to NHS will affect services provided.
- Let the practice staff know more about the level and standard of service they provide from a patient perspective.
- Help the practice decide on overall service priorities.
- Help patients understand more about their medical condition/problems including talks on individual topics, e.g. Diabetes and Heart Disease.
- Help provide information on help available and support groups and networks.
- Help improve the experience of attending the surgery.
Who will be on the PPG?
Initially the group will be made up of various members of the practice staff with the aim to include as many patients who wish to join the group as possible.
What the PPG is not about
We will not deal with personal medical issues or individual patient complaints as there is already a well established procedure to deal with these.
How do patients communicate with the PPG?
- You can write to us at the practice address
- You can contact us via our Twitter
- You can communicate online via the ask the practice a question page
How will I get feedback from the PPG?
- Information will be available in the waiting room at the surgery
- Information will be available on the practice website and twitter
- If you provide us with your email address and mobile telephone number we will add you to our contact list and we will contact you by email or SMS message.
Join our Patient Participation Group
All registered patients are welcome to attend any meeting of the Patient Participation Group without giving prior notice. If you are interested in hearing about the activities of the Patient Participation Group but cannot/do not want to attend meetings please complete the form below to receive newsletters and invitations to contribute to the group activities online.
To join:
- fill out a join our Patient Participation Group form
- phone us on Gloucester Health Access Centre 01452 336290 or Matson Lane Surgery 01452 505344