When setting up your PPG, let PatientPulse help you open up the channels of communication with your patients
What's a PPG and why should I start one?
PPGs (Patient Participation Groups) are groups of patient representatives which act as the "eyes and ears" of a practice, providing a direct connection to the community which enables services to be shaped by patients themselves.
PPGs not only make practices more likely to implement the type of changes that are supported and wanted by patients. Through making improvements and communicating those improvements to your patients, your PPG can also help improve your practice's GP Patient Survey (GPPS) satisfaction scores, some of which have a direct impact on practice funding. Read more about why the GP Patient Survey matters
About 40% of practices had a Patient Participation Group in mid-2009, when a campaign called 'Growing Patient Participation' was set up as a year-long initiative between a cast of bodies - the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), the British Medical Assocation (BMA), the NHS Alliance, and the National Association for Patient Participation (NAPP). The campaign aims to encourage all practices to set up a PPG. Experience shows that, despite the concerns of some practices before starting a PPG, PPGs are overwhelmingly supportive and positive in the impact they have on the practice.
How to start a PPG
If you run a practice and are thinking of starting a PPG, the best place to start is the National Patient Participation Association. This is the umbrella organisation for PPGs within primary care, with over 400 members. Affiliation costs from only £30 annually, and through affiliation you get access to resources and help, but also become eligible for grants from their 'Making a Difference' fund, which is distributing £20,000 to support PPG activities.
How PatientPulse can help you get started
In the early days of your PPG, the priority is to open the channels of communication with patients as widely as possible, and find ways of listening to opinions. Not only the opinions of those who volunteer as members of your PPG, but the mass of patients that they represent.
It could be tempting to rely upon the results of the GP Patient Survey to find out what patients think. However the GPPS has several limitations. Firstly it is only a snapshot of patient views at a point in time, and does not allow you to monitor and track improvements that you have made recently, or new ways of working you might be trying out. It also doesn't invite every patient to take part. Secondly it only gathers quantitative information - it doesn't capture patient stories about their experiences at your surgery, which is where the real learning can happen. Finally it doesn't allow any conversations to start with the patients who give their feedback.
This is where PatientPulse comes in to fill in the gaps where the GPPS doesn't provide everything that you need.
PatientPulse gives you:
- Continuous 'real-time' monitoring of what patients think, day by day, week by week. Giving you the most up-to-date trends to discuss in every PPG meeting, and keeping you closer to what's happening RIGHT NOW in your practice, and a way of tracking whether improvements are really happening.
- An open invitation to all your patients to take part, and say what their experience has been. More than that, we invite patients to tell us the whole story of their treatment or experience, something that the numbers from the GP Patient Survey will never tell you. This lead to real insights about how your practice is performing and what needs to change.
- An easy way of communicating your progress and decisions with those patients who are interested, via an email newsletter for those who wish to be kept up to date following their feedback.
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