My name is David Williams and I am the Chair of The Village Surgeries Patient Participation Group (VSG PPG); this is my second year in the role. We have three elected roles; our Vice Chair is Esther Sadler-Williams and our Secretary Janet Foster.
So, what is the purpose of the PPG? Very simply, we aspire to be a ’critical friend’ to the Practice. When issues arise, we can see what patients see; what might appear to work in the eyes of the Practice may be viewed from an altogether different perspective by patients. If we can align these two then we’ve gone a long way to achieving our core purpose. We seek to identify patients’ needs and, together with the Practice, identify solutions to deliver those needs.
This sounds very grand, but what does the PPG do in practice? Our efforts are structured around two routines which we consistently deliver; for a volunteer group, this is very pleasing.
We meet monthly with the Practice at face-to-face meetings at both Tattenhall and Farndon, alternating with Zoom meetings to provide flexibility for our attendees. As ever, the year saw some members dropping off, but we also welcomed some new members. Our current PPG committee stands at 16 excl. the Practice representation with a typical meeting attendance of 8 which, in busy volunteer agendas, I consider very healthy.
The second element is our quarterly Newsletter, edited by Terri Hull this is produced to a consistent high quality and relevance. The Newsletter makes the primary contribution to our current focus on communications and “signposting”. I have no medical background but a lot of curiosity and, over the past year, I’ve confirmed my view that there is an enormous, but overwhelming, quantity of high-quality information available within NHS resources but it’s often not easy to find!! We have therefore focused on simplifying access to signposting information and will, in the coming month, share a piece of work with this goal.
What else?
We continue to work with the Practice to support patients getting online with the NHS App. I personally find it the easiest way to order repeat prescriptions and view my health record. I believe that, as the NHS centrally develops functionality, familiarity with this App will become increasingly important, for example Countess of Chester appointments have recently appeared in it; if we can help patients navigate it, we will.
A selection of our other activities from the past year is
- Revision of text messages, complaint and annual review letters
- A review of appointment scheduling
- Disabled bay painting at Farndon and Tattenhall practices
- Patient input to Website upgrade
It remains a goal to make our PPG more representative of our overall patient population and although we are a young at heart and very vibrant group, we are looking for ways to encourage some new members, particularly younger patients to join us. So, if you feel passionately that you can make a difference to our patient community, we would love you to join our group. Our very ‘upbeat’ meetings are at 6.30pm on the second Wednesday of every month, alternating between on-line via ‘Zoom’, and face-to-face at locations both in Farndon and Tattenhall.
Details of upcoming meetings can be found on our section of the Practice website.
If you would like more information, please don’t hesitate to contact me by email vsg.ppg@nhs.net
Kindest Regards,
David
