A Patient Participation Group, or PPG, is a volunteer group of patients who work collaboratively with GP staff to help plan and improve practice services by ensuring that the patient perspective is always represented
What does the PPG do?
At Jesmond Health Partnership we have established 5 key PPG objectives:
- To develop a mutually beneficial relationship between the practice and its patients.
- To make sure that patients are at the heart of practice decision making.
- To enable patients to play an active role in improving the patient experience and ensuring high-quality services and facilities.
- To act as a critical friend to the practice by supporting and helping shape its work – particularly patient communication – but also by holding the practice to account on patients’ behalf.
- To help patients understand how General Practice works, how best to access the services they need and to promote health awareness and self-care.
“The PPG opens up a great opportunity to work with other volunteer patients, carers and practice staff to share ideas and plans and to offer constructive feedback.
As the ‘patient voice’ our role is to make sure that the improved health and fitness of patients is at the heart of everything the practice does.”
Elizabeth Hammill OBE
PPG Chair, Jesmond Health Partnership
“The NHS is constantly changing, and it’s vital that as our GP practice changes too,
the services that we offer are right for the people who use them.
As a listening practice, the PPG has a vital role to play in keeping us connected to our patients, and understanding their experiences.”
Dr Ben Davies
Senior Partner, Jesmond Health Partnership
How does the group work?
Membership of the core PPG group of 8-16 is open to any patient registered with us and to patient carers.
It should be as representative of the diverse practice population as possible to ensure input from a wide range of local views.
Each core member serves an initial 3 year term but can then stand for re-election.
Meetings are held every other month, at times convenient to members.
The Practice Manager, GPs and other staff update members on the practice performance, changes to processes and new developments.
Members are proactive, holding the practice to account by asking questions, raising issues and always providing the patient perspective.
Patients’ individual experiences matter, and the ideas and feedback arising from these experiences are hugely valuable in helping the practice to grow and improve.
The group may carry out and analyse patient surveys and ad hoc research, enabling it to support and advise the practice on results and key issues raised and how these might best be communicated to patients.
It may also work with other local and national health service providers to benefit both patients and practice.
Why join our PPG?
If you, as a patient, would like to have a voice in supporting the development of Jesmond Health Partnership, then join our PPG.
If you want to help shape the best possible primary healthcare services available to over 13,000 patients, then join our PPG.
If you are passionate about patients being empowered to take responsibility for how they manage their own health and wellbeing, then join our PPG.
If you are full of ideas about how to engage with patients, and help them navigate the NHS as it changes, then join our PPG.
If you have a proactive attitude, a cooperative approach and want to help make change happen, then join our PPG.