Whitewater Health PPG has eleven members with a variety of backgrounds and skills. The Practice (18,000 patients) is based on two sites in North Hampshire.
We have an excellent relationship with the Practice. The Practice Operations Manager and GP attend every PPG meeting.
The Meads Medical Centre serves around 9,000 patients in the rapidly growing town of Uckfield in East Sussex.
The Patients’ Group, which was formed 10 years ago, has always enjoyed an excellent working relationship with the practice. It achieves its key role as a critical friend whilst being positive and supportive.
Patient Participation Group Awareness Week is fast approaching – let’s work together to share the critical role PPGs play within primary care.
N.A.P.P.’s role is centred around listening to the concerns of patients, understanding the issues they are facing within primary care and escalating this to ensure the patient voice remains at the heart of local, regional and national decision making. As such, we have developed a short survey to gather feedback from our members and the public to understand the most important policy priorities impacting patients in primary care.
NHS England has proposed that the commissioning functions of Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) need to be absorbed into the newly developing integrated care systems (ICS) by April 2022, as part of its plans to “accelerate collaborative ways of working”.
This comes as part of a package of proposed changes to legislation designed to hand ICSs the direct commissioning power. It will result in a ‘single pot’ of funding which brings together current CCG commissioning budgets and primary care budgets, among other sources of funding.
Our President, Dr Patricia Wilkie, recently completed a paper for the Society of Apothecaries, which explores the history of the patient – from a case, to a person, to a partner.
Our members spoke, and we acted. To support their need to connect with each other, particularly during these trying times,1 February marked the launch of our online community platform, VeryConnect.
N.A.P.P. was delighted to see the recent letter published in the BMJ by Joan Woolard. This personal insight provides a brief history of Patient Participation Groups and the impact they could have on the NHS, if used effectively.
The coronavirus pandemic has triggered profound and rapid changes in general practice. Within weeks of the outbreak in England, the proportion of face-to-face GP consultations shifted from 70% to 23%. Patient Participation Groups (PPGs) play a crucial role in primary care as a key link between patients and general practice. During this period, they too, have experienced a shift in how, when and where they have been able to meet.
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