Carnewater Practice Patients' Group

The first meeting of the new CPPG took place on 25th May 2011. Several willing and keen people arrived for the meeting and were welcomed by Sally Poxon and Dr Emma Langstaff. Several of us (including me) didn’t really have much of an idea why we were there or what it is we could contribute within such a group. We were aware however, that the main emphasis of such a group would be about quality of care and also our input into the practice with attention being placed on Best Interest for the patients of Carnewater practice and representing patients.

Once we had dealt with all the introductions etc, we then concentrated on what we would be doing (our remit) as a PPG. Obviously there were several different ideas put forward and this triggered us all to put our thinking hats on and start to look at some possible ideas and direction to get the group up and started.

Later, rather than sooner, it was necessary for us to allocate some of the more official posts, such as Chair Person, Secretary etc. After much debate, two members eventually agreed to take the above posts. So, our Chair Person is Eileen Gough and our Secretary is yours truly Michael Reeves. We would need to look at further positions later, such as Treasurer and Publicity Officer. These titles may sound a little grand but actually involve quite a lot of work and dedicated time. As secretary I take the minutes at meetings, set the agenda with approval from the chair and circulate all the information to the members. Having an email address certainly makes life easier (and saves on postage!). There is always lots to do and it is all very interesting, I am enjoying the challenge, I think we all are (and we enjoy our meetings).

Well, rather than give you a step-by-step account of everything from every meeting (we have had a few now), I will highlight the things we have started to get underway. It takes time to get things really moving and at times this can be a little frustrating – but there we are!

We are now affiliated with N.A.P.P (National Association for Patient Participation). This gives us access to lots of information about other PPGs across country and the sort of things they do and take on as part of their duties as a PPG. NAPP was formed in 1978 by Patient Participation Groups (PPGs) that wanted to network together nationally and to promote patient participation within GP surgeries. The charity has grown steadily and the model is increasingly accepted as an integral part of modern general practice. Joining NAPP has given us the opportunity to examine many other ideas and activities that other PPGs are providing. We receive a newsletter from them and there is a great deal of information at our fingertips by accessing their website. I am pretty sure that we shall benefit a great deal as we set-up our PPG just by having this wealth of information available.

At our last meeting one of our members Richard volunteered to take on the post of Publicity Officer and hopefully it will be Richard writing these newsletter articles in the future.

Fundraising is not at the top of our agenda, but no doubt will surface from time to time when the members see a good reason to start raising money. Our main purpose is about patient care and working with the staff of Carnewater practice to strive toward excellence in all we do.

Soon we will be producing a little booklet about CPPG and this will contain mini biographies of all the members. You will see as we did that the skills and talents within our group are absolutely amazing. With all these skills and talents I feel we will have much to offer in the near future.

Here are just four of our Aims and Objectives, I hope that these will give you an idea of the dedication we have as CPPG members:

1. ‘To improve patient care’.
2. To gather ‘Good News stories’.
3. To recruit young members into the CPPG.
4. To always make time to listen to Patients Genuine Concerns, and to represent patients.

The group is currently looking at holding an ‘open evening’ or ‘open afternoon’ for Carnewater patients to call in and see what we are striving to do. Perhaps other patients of the practice may want to become involved? We have a few ideas in the pipeline which we hope YOU would want to learn about and maybe get involved with. We may be a new group but we are determined and very focused to do all we can to assist with patient care.

If you would like to learn more, perhaps become involved, or just keep up-to-date with everything appertaining to your CPPG, feel free to contact me by email: Michaelereeves@tiscali.co.uk or alternatively telephone me on 01208 76635 (evenings only please).

Thank you for reading this our first newsletter article and we hope to hear from you.

Michael Reeves

Secretary

Carnewater practice Patients Group (CPPG)

We would like to know how we can improve our service to you and how you perceive our surgery and staff.

To help us with this, we are setting up a virtual patient representation group so that you can have your say. We will ask the members of this representative group some questions from time to time, such as what you think about our opening times or the quality of the care or service you received. We will contact you via email and keep our surveys succinct so it shouldn’t take too much of your time.

We aim to gather around a hundred patients from as broad a spectrum as possible to get a truly representative sample. We need young people, workers, retirees, people with long term conditions and people from non-British ethnic groups.

If you are happy for us to contact you occasionally by email please click the link below to open the sign-up form and complete all the fields.

Complete the Patient Group Sign-up Form Online

If you prefer, you can download the sign up form as a pdf document, print it out, complete it and return it to the practice.

Download the pdf version of our sign up form

We will be in touch shortly after we receive your form. Please note that no medical information or questions will be responded to.

Many thanks for your assistance

About This Form

Note that by using this form, you will be sending information about yourself across the Internet. Whilst every effort is made to keep this information secure, you should be aware that we cannot offer any guarantees of absolute privacy. If this matter concerns you then you should use another method to notify us of your comment.

Your IP address (38.107.179.211) will be sent with your communication. In rare cases where abuse or criminal activity can be shown to have taken place this may be used by the authorities to trace you.