Andrew's blog: How we formed our Patient Participation Group (PPG)

In August 2024, I received a message from Greystones Medical Centre (GMC), my GP Practice, looking to form a Patient Participation Group (PPG): if I was interested, would I attend a meeting? I have 10 members of my family, from 3 generations, at the practice, so I went.

It transpired all patients who had attended the Practice in the previous 3 months received the same message! There were about 10 patients there - not many but enough - two representatives from the practice, Rebecca and Charlotte, and Margaret (Chair of Falkland House PPG) a local GP Practice.

It was explained why PPGs exist: to have a Patient Voice and work alongside the Practice to improve the patient experience. That sounded worthwhile and interesting.

Then came the crunch: who will be Chair? No hands went up, all was quiet, so eventually I  said, OK, but only if someone else does it with me! Luckily, another patient, Phil, said he would. We became Co-Chairs.

We all agreed that the other patients, plus Rebecca and Charlotte would form our committee, and, really, that night our PPG was formed! We agreed to meet monthly for an hour at 18:00 for the first 2/3 months to get things moving, and bi-monthly afterwards.

In September, our first formal meeting, we agreed our priorities, incorporating suggestions from the National Association for Patient Participation (NAPP).

With practice support from Rebecca and Charlotte, and help from Margaret and Ian, (Chair of Hollies PPG), both from our local Primary Care Network, the committee completed ‘ formal set-up’ in 2/3 months, with publicity, terms of reference (based on our priorities) and an application process agreed.

It took some hard work, but support is out there, both locally and from NAPP, (NAPP membership and full access costs £80 per year).

You can also link with your local Primary Care Network (PCN). Our PCN, Porter Valley in Sheffield, consists of 6 GP practices, 3 now have PPGs.

Our PPG has been running for 10 months, we have sent out two Patient Newsletters, the first launching the PPG, the second explaining the results of our first Patient Survey. We also have a presence on our Practice website and in reception.

Our Patient Survey aimed to identify which GP services are most important to patients and how well the practice is doing in actually delivering those services. This has given some great feedback, useful to the PPG and the Practice, and shown clearly, where to concentrate our efforts to improve the patient experience, exactly why we were set up.

Next, as a direct result of the survey, we will produce another newsletter, explaining how to navigate the Triage System our Practice, alongside many nationally, has introduced. We will communicate this to our patients electronically and in paper  to reach as many as possible.

We are working alongside Falkland House and Hollies PPGs trying to help other PPGs form in our Porter Valley area.

And we are talking with Sheffield Healthwatch to see how we encourage more PPGs to form throughout the City of Sheffield.

We believe every GP Practice needs a PPG, so why not form one at your Practice? Especially as it's National PPG Awareness Week!  Help will be close at hand.