Patient Participation Group

About Us

About the Patient Participation Group (PPG)

From April 2016, it has been a contractual requirement for all English GP practices to form a Patient Participation Group (PPG).

We are a group of patients registered with St. John’s Medical Centre who mostly have no medical training but have an interest in the services provided.

We provide an opportunity for patients to get more involved in the practice and influence the way services are provided.

All of the work is done on a voluntary basis, and we are a non-profit organisation.

Our Mission

The mission of the PPG is to develop an apolitical, positive, and constructive relationship between the patients, the Practice, and the community it serves, ensuring the Practice remains accountable and responsive to all its patients' needs.

Our group key roles are:

  1. Create and improve two-way communication between the patients, the practice, and the community it serves.
  2. To bring a sense of partnership between Practice and patients but be able to constructively challenge the practice whenever necessary.
  3. Provide an avenue for patients’ input in the way facilities and services are planned and executed, to add humanity to, and influence those services.
  4. Provide constructive two-way feedback on patient and community needs, concerns, and interests.
  5. Support the practice in good health promotion, preventative medicine, and health literacy.
  6. Collect patient opinions and experiences to help the Practice to evaluate its services.

What we do

We work with the practice to help make improvements and provide a patient perspective on how the practice works and give an opinion on the wider NHS.

Our feedback is taken seriously and has already resulted in positive changes including the replacement of the Tannoy system with TV screens to notify patients that doctors or nurses are ready to see them, the changing to a more pleasant music on the telephone system .

Current Activities

 

Web Check

The PPG has completely revamped the PPG web pages and is also monitoring the number of visitors to ensure that patients use the website and benefit from the information available to them.

PPG Patient Survey

We have put together a PPG patient survey and this will be available shortly to patients to complete online or as a hardcopy. Your feedback is important because it will help us and the Practice staff to understand where we can make improvements and where the Practice is providing a good service.

PPG Information Leaflet

We are currently putting together a PPG information leaflet and this will be available to all patients in the Reception and waiting areas.

Health Talks

The group is currently looking at the possibility of holding educational health talks for patients at the Practice. These might include the following:

  • Basic first aid
  • Awareness around particular illnesses
  • Awareness for particular cultural groups around issues that relate to them
  • Awareness for informative NHS campaigns

Join Us

We are currently updating our membership form, if you wish to contact us then please e-mail the PPG team on licb.stjohns.med@nhs.net

Getting Your View - Virtual Group

If you can’t make face-to-face meetings or are caring for someone and unable to leave them, you can still be kept informed, give your views, and participate by being a virtual group member.

The group would like to contact patients on occasion by email and/or text so that they can obtain the views of the widest group of patients possible. We would like to obtain your email address and mobile phone number to do this. Please complete the Patient Contact Form to provide your consent for this.