Introduction
In 2011 the Department of Health launched a new initiative to encourage Practices to engage more closely with their patients.
This is called the “Patient Participation Directed Enhanced Service”. Practices are encouraged to set up a Patient Participation Group as a way of fostering closer contact between the Practice and its patients.
The aim of the Patient Participation Group (PPG) or Patient Reference Group (PRG) is to facilitate a closer involvement with patients in the design and delivery of the healthcare services they receive.
Dr Reidy & Partners, as the Partnership that manages both Desborough Surgery and Hazlemere Surgery, supports the initiative, and has set up a PPG.
In order to reach out to a representative body, it was agreed that we would establish a ‘virtual group’, meaning that information would be sought via email using questionnaires.
This will enable to Practice to collect opinions from the patients on various matters that concern both of the surgeries.
Initially patients interested in participating were sought via a variety of methods – the surgery website, messages on the electronic screens at both sites and posters advertising the PPG were put up in the surgeries. Where we already had an email address for patients, invitations were sent.
In addition for a 2 week period the General Practitioners and Practice Nurses were asked to hand out flyers to all patients asking who would like to be involved. In this way efforts were made to have a group representative of the patient demographic.
Respondents were asked what issues were important to them.
Patients were then emailed a validated questionnaire called the General Practice Assessment Questionnaire which is produced with the kind permission of the Universities of Manchester and Cambridge.
This questionnaire covers a wide range of issues. It asks questions about the following areas – receptionists and appointments, opening times, doctors and clinical care. We were aware from previous responses that these issues are important to patients, and it was agreed that they should form the basis of our survey.
It is envisaged that a survey will be carried out at least once a year, and in addition the opinion of the PPG will be canvassed on other areas that are identified by the PPG itself.
We want to establish how surgery services can be improved and enhance communication between surgery staff and our patients. The surgery values the opinions of the whole patient population. All views that have been offered will be respected and are, of course, confidential.
New members of the PPG are welcome. Please complete the form on the website.
PATIENT PARTICIPATION GROUP (PPG): 2019
Hello. My name is Ken Tyson and I am Chair of the newly formed PPG for Desborough and Hazlemere surgeries.
We exist to strengthen the relationship between you, the patients and the practice to help provide modern, high-quality healthcare services.
So how do we do this?
Well, we take a patient’s perspective on all activities; we help to improve communications between the practice and patients; we influence the development of services; we promote health matters.
We are a group of 10 members, including a practice doctor (there is a GP present at all our meetings), the practice manager (Alan Dunham) and patient representatives. We have a wide range of experience and skills between us. Some are, or have been working in healthcare, some have worked in business, some are simply patients who want to help the practice get better.
As an example, I am now retired from working at very senior levels in international business. But I have lived in High Wycombe for over 40 years, all that time being a patient at Desborough surgery.
So what are we working on at the moment?
Well, we have just conducted the second of our patient surveys at both premises. There is a summary of our findings elsewhere on the website. We are updating the website itself, with new pages and sections. There is this PPG page, which will grow over the weeks and months. We have set up a Self Care and Knowledge Library with real, practical advice for patients with diagnosed conditions to help manage and understand how to cope. The initial conditions are diabetes, asthma, high blood pressure (hypertension) and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). If you suffer from any of these, take a look at https://desborough.gpsurgery.net/self-care-knowledge-library/
The included conditions will be added to over time.
We are updating our news and noticeboard sections to let you know what is going on. And I promise that these will be kept up-to-date and current.
And we hope to launch soon a patient forum and patient feedback section so that your voice can be heard directly.
We have chosen to make the website changes on a “rolling basis”, with new sections being added to the existing content progressively. So do please keep coming back to see what else is new.
