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?
