Ø Would you like to support your GP Practice moving forward?
Ø Do you have some spare time that you can offer to help us to continue delivering a great service, then we need you!
Ø You can volunteer to be as active as you would like based on topics that interest you, join our PPG.
Ø Is this something you would like to be involved in?
Complete our online form to join our Patient Participation Group.
Ø We have both a face to face group and a new virtual group.
The ‘Small’ Print
What is a PPG (Patient Participation Group)
It is a group of people who are patients of the surgery and want to help it work as well as it can for patients, doctors and staff.
The NHS requires every practice to have a PPG.
From April 2013, GP practices and other primary medical services have been regulated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
The CQC checks services to ensure that national standards of quality and safety are met. A central part of this involves listening to the views and experiences of people who use a service to help the CQC make judgements about that service.
With their focus on quality and responsiveness of care, PPGs are a valuable source of information about patients’ views and experiences. CQC inspectors will expect every practice in England to have a PPG in place. It is essential that the CQC is able to work in partnership with them when they inspect GP practices.
What do PPG’s do?
They have the aim of making sure that their medical practice puts the patient, and improving health of the community, at the heart of everything it does.
The beauty of PPGs is that there is no set way in which they work - the aims and work of each group entirely depends on local needs.
In practice, PPGs can play a number of roles, including:
• Advise and offer feedback to the practice from the patient perspective
• Assist the practice to make the most effective use of their resources
• Offer practical support to the practice
• Communicating with the wider patient body
• Carrying out research into the views of those who use the practice (and their carers)
• Influencing the practice or the wider NHS to improve commissioning
• Fundraising to improve the services provided by the practice
• Organising health promotion events
• Running volunteer services and support groups to meet local needs
• To act as critical friends of the practice.
Remember a PPG has to represent a whole practice population, not personal or individual views, and therefore must have a strategic and overarching focus.
Patient participation is not:
• A forum for complaints
• A doctors’ fan club
• A time-consuming activity for practice staff
• A ‘talking shop’
The groups whose sole purpose is confined to meeting, receiving information from the practice and discussing items of interest are likely to thrive or grow.
What other formalities are there?
The only formal requirement for a small group like this is a constitution or Terms of Reference, and compliance with GDPR regulations.
How much time will be needed for this work?
We meet roughly once every 6 weeks, at the Bugbrooke Surgery premises for one hour.
Your involvement can be tailored to fit the time you are able to give. You will need to take into account reading time – for example, there will be papers to read before and after meetings and you need to keep up to date with these in order to be truly effective, as well as being available on an ad-hoc basis to support the surgery –ie: assisting in handing out questionnaires, or supporting a flu/covid clinic.
We look for active members whose aims are to provide support to the Bugbrooke Medical Practice.
Will it affect my relationship with my GP?
No. The PPG may be based at the surgery but it works independently on behalf of all patients. Your work with the PPG will not be mentioned in your own medical records, neither should it influence your care.
PPG records − for example, minutes and lists of members – are completely separate from your personal medical records.
How do I join…
Is this something you would like to be involved in? Complete our online form to join our Patient Participation Group.
Complete our online form to join our Patient Participation Group.
We have both a face-to-face group and a new virtual group.