Patient Participation Group

Hampton Wick Surgery, which has approximately 9800 patients, formed its Patient Participation Group in January 2013. We normally have around 8 – 10 members with whom we stay in contact both face to face through regular quarterly meetings which are attended by a partner of the practice and someone from the practice team, through e-mail and working together on projects.

The PPG is always looking for additional members representing all age groups and the practice’s population so that we can represent all patients. Says Bonnie Green, who is the current chair of Hampton Wick Surgery PPG, “Being part of a PPG is an interesting and rewarding experience and I would definitely recommend it.

There are two ways that you can get involved:

• Joining the committee and attending our meetings which are held quarterly. The committee is responsible for planning and implementing the PPS’s annual work plan.
• Joining an on-line/virtual group. You’ll be kept up to date with the work of the PPG and practice news, perhaps be asked your views or to comment on documents, help with practice patient surveys, distributing newsletters or other PPG activities as well as offered the opportunity to participate in the occasional online survey about healthcare locally.

Please view the PPG terms of reference. 

PPGs are about implementing real, positive change in their practice and its community. Patients have long valued the relationship with their GP and general practice. However the dynamics of this relationship have changed over recent years – patients today rightly want more say in their own healthcare, they are better informed and expect to be treated as whole people, not just as a condition or ailment.

PPGs have an increasingly important role to play in helping to give patients a say in the way services are delivered to best meet their needs, and the needs of the local community. PPGs can help GPs to develop an equal partnership with their patients. They can help them to communicate accurately and honestly with individual patients, and with the wider community about key health matters.

They can also help to reduce costs and improve services by identifying changes that the practice may not have considered, allowing resources to be used more efficiently. What is more, they can develop mutually supportive networks for patients and the practice, outside of individual appointments.

Our PPG plays a number of roles, including:

• Advising the practice on the patient perspective across all practice services
• Communicating with the wider patient population and feeding back to the practice
• Carrying out surveys/research into the views and experiences of those who use the practice (and their carers)
• Influencing the practice or the wider NHS in Richmond to improve commissioning and the provision of services and care
• Working with practice on CQC inspection to provide patient perspective
• Producing practice newsletter and other patient communication materials

Other activities could include:

• Organising health promotion or information events
• Fundraising to support the practice/improve services