Patient Participation Group

What is a Patient Participation Group?

The Patient Participation Group (PPG) is made up of a group of patients interested in health and healthcare issues, who are interested in looking at ways and means of making a positive contribution to the services and facilities offered by the practice to its patients.

The PPG can be instrumental in communication between the practice and patients, in facilitating patients’ comments and ideas on the practice’s services and in providing educational support to the patients.

The PPG works as a first line in looking at new proposals to ensure that these will best suit the practice and patients in delivering the services required.

How is the Patient Participation Group made up?

There are two parts to the Patient Participation Group:

Firstly we have the PPG Committee which is a Working Group and is made up of 12 patients supported by the Practice Manager and member of the Clinical Staff, as their time allows.

The Working Group meets approximately every 4 to 6 weeks for a couple of hours to discuss issues and plan forthcoming events. The committee has a “Constitution” and is managed by a Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer.

Secondly we have a Virtual Group (VG) which is currently made up of almost 300 patients. The Virtual Group is made up of patients who don’t have the time to attend meetings but who we can contact via email for their views.

Who can be in the Patient Participation Group?

The simple answer is anyone who is a patient at Old Coulsdon Medical Practice.

On the committee you would need to be able to give a couple of hours every 6 to 8 weeks for meetings and give support between meetings for tasks in supporting the committee’s work.

If you wanted to be on the Virtual Group, then this is more a case of being available to respond to requests as they are made.

What has the Patient Participation Group Done?

We can make a difference, so can you!

In order to maintain the high level and quality of services provided by Old Coulsdon Medical Practice it is important that we continually look for ways to improve what we do and how we do it. The PPG is a vital part of that process and empowers patients by giving them a voice.

We would like to increase the number of patients involved in the PPG so that it truly represents the diversity of our patients in terms of age, gender, medical need, ethnicity, etc.

JOIN THE PPG