Patient Group

 

Patient Review Group (PRG)

The Practice supports and works alongside its Patient Review Groups, who meet regularly to discuss issues that they themselves as patients would like to see improved or changed within the surgery. All patients are welcome.

  • Are you interested in local health issues and wish to improve our services at the practice group?
  • Do you have ideas that we as a practice group could benefit from?
  • If so, why not come and join our Patient Review Group.
  • If you would like to join or gain further information, please ask at the Reception Desk.

PRG Rules

Horsefair Practice Group – PPG – Terms of reference

 Horsefair Practice Group provides medical services for the areas/communities in Rugeley and Armitage and covers a total practice population of approximately 11650 patients.

 Patient Participation Group

 The Practice has a responsibility to seek patients’ feedback from their experiences of services in order to drive improvements. The PPG is a group of volunteer patients who come together with representatives of the practice to exchange information and local views.

The key role of the PPG group is to encourage patients, doctors and members of the practice team to work in partnership in order to promote wellbeing of patients and support the practice to provide a high quality of care and service delivery.

Role and Remit of the Group

 The PPG volunteers act as representatives of the Practice patient population. The Practice team act as partners in the PPG to facilitate meetings and provide information as well as gathering feedback.

The core objectives of the PPG will be:-

  • To enable dialogue between patients and the practice team and promote patient involvement in the practice.
  • Ensure patients’ needs are considered in the development of the practice systems e.g. appointment systems, telephone systems, providing information about and promoting understanding of such systems.
  • Support the practice to achieve its health promotion aims.
  • Ensure patient participation and consultation with respect to new developments.
  • Review and where appropriate provide advice and recommendations in regard to the practices annual patient survey.
  • Periodically survey patients at the practice by conducting a practice based patient survey on behalf of the practice.
  • Ensure the needs and interests of all patients groups are taken into consideration – so as not to discriminate against patients with specific illness, disability or ethnic groups etc.
  • For reasons of confidentiality and possible conflicts of interest the PPG membership are restricted from discussing their own personal medical problems or those of others registered with the practice.

 Membership

 The membership of the PPG will include:

6 patient representatives (as a minimum)

1 GP Partner

A member of the Senior Management Team

Efforts will be made to ensure a fair spread of membership to represent the Practice population. And to represent particular groups where appropriate (eg young families)

Meetings

 Meetings will be held bi-monthly and notice of the meetings will be given at least 7 days in advance.

Management of Meetings

 The PPG will elect a chairperson and secretary for the group. These posts will be appointed on an annual basis.

Meetings will be held at Hillsprings Surgery or Armitage branch.

The secretary will be responsible for taking minutes and organising agendas etc.

All members of the group will be invited to raise items to be put on the agenda.

All members of the group should contact the management team representative if they have any questions or issues. NB the PPG is not usually a forum for personal complaints.

All members will be expected to respect rules of confidentiality and not

discuss personal or sensitive information outside of the meetings.

Virtual PPG

To support the PPG and extend its reach, the PPG will establish an online group to be called the Virtual Patient Participation Group (VPPG). Any patient may volunteer to join the VPPG. The PPG will regularly contact the VPPG in order to obtain their views on specific matters. A member of the PPG will be made responsible for liaising with the VPPG and ensure that no one is excluded. There will be a standing item on the PPG agenda reporting any key themes, issues or suggestions that have been identified by any member of the VPPG to help ensure its members are engaged. Notwithstanding the above, any patient may send views and suggestions directly to the PPG.

Members of the VPPG will follow the same Code of Conduct as those in the PPG that meets face-to-face. See Appendix 1.

Quorum and Decision-Making

 At group meetings a quorum will consist of 5 members. The PPG will aim wherever possible to reach decisions by consensus. Where this is not possible the view held by the majority of those present will be the view that is agreed and taken forward by the group.

Meetings will generate action points to be reviewed at the following meeting.

The Horsefair PPG is mainly concerned with local issues. It is also part of a feedback network for the Cannock Chase Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). There will be representation and information sharing between Horsefair PPG and the Cannock District Patient Participation Group which encompasses the Cannock Chase CCG area serving 14 practices and nearly 150,000 people. Ultimately the CCG Governing body is required to hear and respond to important local views.

Appendix 1

PPG Code of Conduct & Governance lead

The PPG Membership is not based on opinions or characteristics of individuals and shall be non-political and non-sectarian, at all times respecting diversity and exemplifying its commitment to the principles contained within the Equality Act.

The Chairman will be responsible for ensuring that the rules, role, remit and Code of Conduct are implemented and adhered to by all members of the PPG.

Members failing to adhere to the rules and code of conduct may be asked to leave the group unless a satisfactory explanation for their actions is forthcoming.

All Members of the PPG (including the Virtual PPG) make this commitment:

  1. To respect practice and patient confidentiality at all times.0
  2. To treat each other with mutual respect and act and contribute in a manner that is in the best interests of all patients.
  3. To be open and flexible and to listen and support each other.
  4. To abide by the seven Nolan Principles of Public Life: Selflessness, Integrity, Objectivity, Accountability, Openness, Honesty and Leadership.
  5. Not to use the PPG as a forum for personal agendas or complaints. These should be taken forward through other appropriate channels.
  6. To accept that the ruling of the Chair or other presiding officer is final on matters relating to orderly conduct.
  7. Otherwise to abide by principles of good meeting practice, for example:
  1. Reading papers in advance
  2. Arriving on time
  3. Switching mobile phones to silent
  4. Allowing others to speak and be heard/respected

Latest PRG Meeting Minutes

Minutes from the PPG Meetings –  These meeting are currently postponed during Covid restrictions.

Please find below the minutes from our latest meeting. The document will open using Microsoft Word.

PRG Minutes  07.01.2020

 

Other Information

Does the Practice have a PPG? YES / NO
Method of engagement with PPG: Face to face, Email, Other (please specify) Face to Face and Email
Number of members of PPG: 18
Detail the gender mix of practice population and PPG:

 

% Male Female
Practice    
PRG 11 7
Detail of age mix of practice population and PPG:

 

% <16 17-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65-74 > 75
Practice 2053 1046 1349 1351 1733 1439 1301 922
PRG         2 2 11 3
Detail the ethnic background of your practice population and PRG:

 

  White Mixed/ multiple ethnic groups
  British Irish Gypsy or Irish traveller Other white White &black Caribbean White &black African White &Asian Other mixed
Practice 10406 11   140 22 9 16 17
PRG 18 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
  Asian/Asian British Black/African/Caribbean/Black British Other
  Indian Pakistani Bangladeshi Chinese

Other

Asian

African Caribbean Other Black Arab Any other
Practice 64 2 13 12 30 4 7 6   434
PRG 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Describe steps taken to ensure that the PPG is representative of the practice population in terms of gender, age and ethnic background and other members of the practice population:

The majority of our patients fall into the White British category and our PPG represent this. However, we actively advertise the PPG opportunistically as well as on our website, in the Practice brochure, at health campaigns – i.e. flu clinics and on our patient information screens. We will also be advertising this on our facebook page (see below) to try to attract younger members to join.

Are there any specific characteristics of your practice population which means that other groups should be included in the PPG?
e.g. a large student population, significant number of jobseekers, large numbers of nursing homes, or a LGBT community? YES/NOYesIf you have answered yes, please outline measures taken to include those specific groups and whether those measures were successful:

 

In Handsacre there are a group of residents who meet on a regular basis at a group called Meeting Point. Our treasurer is actively involved in this group and brings ideas, and feeds back information to and from the group.

  1. Review of patient feedback

Outline the sources of feedback that were reviewed during the year:

Feedback was reviewed from the following sources: In-house Patient Survey, Complaints, Significant Events, CCG Workshops and Meeting Point

How frequently were these reviewed with the PRG?

Reviewed as and when issues arose.

 Action plan priority areas and implementation

Priority area 1

Description of priority area:

Patient Access

What actions were taken to address the priority?

It became clear from the In-house survey that patients were not fully aware of our extended hour’s opening times. Patients were also complaining that they were struggling to book appointments via the telephone.

Result of actions and impact on patients and carers (including how publicised):

We have increased our marketing of our extended hours to help increase patient awareness of the service.

We have increased the number of appointments available to book online and offer this service to every patient who registers with the Practice, as well as actively promoting it to existing patients.

This has helped patients to book appointments at more convenient times without the need for them to ring or visit the surgery.

Priority area 2

Description of priority area:

DNA Rates

What actions were taken to address the priority?

DNAs are monitored daily and at the end of each session, any patients who have DNA’d get a text message to inform them that they have missed their appointment. Two dedicated cancellation lines have been allocated, one at Armitage and one at Hillsprings for patients to call and leave a message. Patients can also cancel appointments online.

Result of actions and impact on patients and carers (including how publicised):

We have had apology feedback from texting patients who have genuinely forgotten their appointment. The dedicated cancellation lines are frequently used as is the online cancellation.

This is an ongoing piece of work that will continue to be a priority area for the coming 12 months.

Priority area 3

Description of priority area:

Patient Communication

What actions were taken to address the priority?

A closed group Facebook page has been set up to inform patients of any issues, health clinics, opening times, training sessions, etc. as social media plays a huge part in everyone’s lives.  

Result of actions and impact on patients and carers (including how publicised):

The page is still in its infancy stage – however we are hoping for positive results in the coming months.

Progress on previous years

If you have participated in this scheme for more than one year, outline progress made on issues raised in the previous year(s):

With the dynamics of the Practice frequently changing we are having to reiterate the same messages to different demographics year in, year out. So whilst we have made progress with patients who have been with us for a number of years, we are still having to educate patients who are new to the Practice where these services have not been offered in the their previous Practice.
  1. PPG Sign Off

Report signed off by PPG: YES/NO

Date of sign off: 11.03.16 (draft signed off verbally) / 23.03.16 signed by Chairman

How has the practice engaged with the PPG: Regular Meetings and Emails and adhoc meetings when required

How has the practice made efforts to engage with seldom heard groups in the practice population? Via representatives

Has the practice received patient and carer feedback from a variety of sources? Yes

Was the PPG involved in the agreement of priority areas and the resulting action plan? Yes

How has the service offered to patients and carers improved as a result of the implementation of the action plan?

Carers and Patients are able to do much more remotely, without the need to leave the house to book or cancel appointments or spend time trying to get through to the surgery at busy times of the day. Increasing the number of appointments available to book online has meant much more flexibility for the patient/carer.

Do you have any other comments about the PPG or practice in relation to this area of work?

The work will continue into the next financial year – with an even bigger push to recruit younger members to the PPG and also a further analysis of DNA data and new ways of working in order to try to reduce the current amount.