Patient Participation Group (PPG)

Patient Group

Patient participation is:

Patients working with a practice to:

Patient Participation Groups can:

Patient participation is not:

PPGs are voluntary organisations, helping the practice to improve services

Acting as a representative group that can be called on to influence the local provision of health and social care
Providing feedback from patients, eg on appointment systems, consultation times and repeat prescription systems
Monitoring the accessibility of practice communications
Carrying out surveys into a whole variety of subjects, eg measuring patient satisfaction, health needs, awareness and expectations
Helping to obtain the patient view
Exploring the changing needs of patients

Good for the community because:

patients will have an organisation through which they can identify their own needs
patients will be able to get an idea of what is needed to improve healthcare and make sure that the patient view is always represented

Good for patients because:

patients will have a better understanding and knowledge of the practice and its staff
if appropriate, patients will be consulted about arrangements for their primary healthcare before decisions are made
patients will benefit from improved communications with staff
patients will have a forum to suggest positive ideas and voice concerns

Good for practice staff because:

GPs and their staff will be able to plan services jointly with patients in order to increase their effectiveness
They will be able to get help from patients in meeting targets and objectives.
They will have a forum to voice concerns ideas and suggestions to patients
they will get closer to the community for whom they care