Patient Participation Groups are a valuable platform for patients to work together with staff and doctors at the practice. They give people an opportunity to share their experiences of being a patient at the practice and to put forward their perspective on what works well and how improvements can be made.
PPGs help to pull in people’s opinions and facilitate discussions between practices and their patients – ultimately making services better by shaping them to patients’ needs.
Anyone can get involved in our PPG; there are no formal skills or qualifications needed. You just need to be willing to volunteer your time to make a positive difference to your practice for people who use its services.
PPG’s help to shape the broader healthcare system by providing user-experience and insight to those who commission primary care services, whether in NHS England or a Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). Commissioners should be using the knowledge and expertise of PPGs when planning and developing primary care services for communities. This is something highlighted to commissioners in the Framework for patient and public participation in primary care commissioning so that the views and insight of PPGs are taken into account.
Do you want to get involved?
Great Chapel Street runs a patient participation group meeting every 3-6 months approximately. This is a forum for you to express your views about the service and identify any areas of development as well as helping us to implement change.
Ask at reception for information of our next PPG meeting and come along.