Don't just talk - do something.

Have you ever talked about your GP surgery over dinner, sitting in a café, standing in the checkout at the supermarket….?

Well you are not alone!

A Million people a day use their GP surgery and most of those will have something to say about the experience.

Most of those experiences are good.

However sometimes us patients have ideas about how to make the experience of talking with a GP or practice nurse better.

There can be problems with the phone service, making appointments isn’t always easy, seeing your own GP can mean waiting weeks, no privacy at the reception desk, access can be difficult for those with disabilities and as for car parking…!

So instead of talking about things on your own – join your Practice Patient Participation Group (PPG) and do something about them.

A patient participation group is a bunch of volunteers who want to make a difference.  They work with the practice to gather information from patients and to make suggestions about improvements.

They look at the surgery and ask:

What works well?

What works less well?

Are there services that are not provided but would benefit patients?

They also run an annual patient survey, hopefully the questions are set by the patients not the surgery.

Sadly General Practice is going to have to change. Being part of your PPG is one way you can help to make sure we keep the best bits of General Practice

Your voice on its own is very quiet.

But the voice of the many people in the PPG is much louder and will be listened to.

Please join your Practice Patient Participation Group.

Ask at reception or look on the practice website.  Maybe there is a social media page?

It’s the patient experience, stupid!

I have always thought that the main role of local Healthwatch was to collect the experiences of patient using the health and social care services.

But one of their board members is quoted in the minutes of their November board meeting as saying

 “Healthwatch Bucks could make a business case for the integrated collection, analysis & reporting of patient feedback across health and social service provision in Buckinghamshire”.

http://www.healthwatchbucks.co.uk/sites/default/files/board_minutes_11th_november.pdf

So why does this board member think Healthwatch Bucks needs to make a business case to do what it is contracted to do anyway?  By using the words ‘business case’ he is suggesting, in my opinion, that they should seek funding to do this job. 

They should be doing it now as part of their primary function, not asking for more funds!

I wonder if he has seen what Healthwatch Buckinghamshire says on its own website.

This statement is included as part of their ‘What we do’ section on the Healthwatch Buckinghamshire website

“Collect data and stories about the good and the bad, so we can use evidence based criteria to influence commissioning and policy.”

They expand on this theme in their ‘What will Healthwatch do’ section of the website:

“….seek the views of people about their needs for, and their experiences of, local care services.”

“Examine the quality of local health and social care services.”

“Make the views of local people known, and reports and recommendations about how local care services could or ought to be improved, to people responsible for planning, providing, managing or scrutinising local care services.”

http://www.healthwatchbucks.co.uk/

Even the CCG has something to say on the issue:

In their draft paper on the Review and Development of our (AVCCG) Commissioning Intentions they say:

“(the CCG will) Work closely with Healthwatch to expand the feedback we receive on patient experience from direct observation and feedback from patients, clinicians and the public including those from hard to reach communities. “.

http://www.aylesburyvaleccg.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/GB-2013-10-4b.pdf

It is high time Healthwatch Buckinghamshire stopped talking and got on with its primary function.

Go out and collect the experiences of patients and carers of health and social care service provision.