CURZON ROAD MEDICAL PRACTICE PATIENT PARTICIPATION GROUP THE PRACTICE

CURZON ROAD MEDICAL PRACTICE PATIENT PARTICIPATION GROUP THE PRACTICE




Curzon Road Medical Practice Patient Participation Group

Curzon Road Medical Practice Patient Participation Group


The practice invited patients to form a patient participation group in September 2011. We recruited via a poster in the waiting room and by asking some patients direct to ensure a diversity of representation, reflecting the mix of our practice profile to match as closely as possible our knowledge of our patient profile.


8 patients agreed to join the group initially. It was made up of 6 female and 2 male patients, 7 White British and 1 Indian. One member of the group is disabled. Since the original group was formed we now have 2 new members who are over 65, as we originally had no representation of this age group.


We will continue to recruit via poster, website and invitation to all patients completing the questionnaire. We will also monitor the profile of the group and consider specific invitations to any groups of patients we consider under represented.


Once we had a group of patients agreeing to join our Patient Participation Group, we decided to communicate with them via email. The practice manager emailed the group, example below:


Dear


Thank you for agreeing to be part of our patient participation group and answering this email. The attachment I have sent to you is asking for your ideas on areas for improvement you feel we need to focus on. We will then be sending out a survey to patients asking them their views on the areas the patient participation group want to try and improve. Once we have the findings of the survey we will discuss with you any appropriate action or changes we will be making.


Thank you for your time.


Attachment:


The Purpose of a Patient Participation Group is:


• To give practice staff and patients the opportunity to, where possible, share decision making in the running of the practice.


• To provide for patients to make positive suggestions about the practice, and be an advocate for patient preferences when appropriate.


• To involve further patients from the wider population, and be an advocate for the practice when appropriate.


• To encourage health education activities within the practice.


• To develop self-help projects to meet the needs of fellow patients, such as befriending, help with transport, and bereavement support.


• To act as a representative group that can be called upon to influence the local provision of health and social care.


We are planning our first annual survey and to ensure that we ask the right questions, we would like to know what you think should be our key priorities when it comes to looking at the services we provide to you and others in the practice.


What do you think are the most important issues on which we should consult our patients?


For example, which of the following do you think we should focus on:


Please give your reasons for the area or areas you feel we need to focus on.


Completing the patient survey


We decided on the suggested topic areas based on the recommended areas in the DES and our perception of patient concerns, also allowing participants to add further areas if needed.


3 areas were highlighted by the group, parking, prescribing and physiotherapy. These areas were discussed at the practice meeting and we decided on how to phrase to questions.


We decided to survey 50 patients on the 3 areas that the group had identified. Questionnaires were handed out randomly over a two week period in reception and information was made available via the practice website inviting participation in the survey. All representation groups, including disabled people attend the surgery.


40 patients completed the questionnaires, the results are attached.






Survey results and Action plan


The practice collected the information from the survey and sent the results to the PRG, inviting feedback. We discussed the results at the practice meeting and with the feedback from the PRG we developed an action plan, which was emailed out again to the PRG. Responses were again collected and the PRG accepted that we will continue to monitor the parking situation, even though we are unable to create anymore parking spaces and that we will remind patients to follow the correct procedure for ordering prescriptions. The practice will continue to develop the patient participation group and collect the views of our patients on various topics.







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