30 Old Road West, Gravesend, Kent DA11 0LL (Main Surgery)

OLD ROAD WEST SURGERY

30 Old Road West, Gravesend, Kent DA11 0LL (main surgery)

264 Mackenzie Way, Gravesend, Kent DA12 5TY (branch surgery)

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Email:

PATIENT PARTICIPATION GROUP ANNUAL REPORT 2015/16

INTRODUCTIONFROM THE PRACTICE

Welcome to our Patient Participation Group (PPG) Annual Report for 2015/16.

The PPG has gone from to strength to strength since its formation in October 2011, not least due to the continued interest, support, efforts and freely-given time of its members, all of whom are registered patients of the Practice, representing both our main and branch surgery sites.

As a Practice, we are extremely proud that we have such enthusiastic and committed patient representation and we enjoy maintaining strong links and relations with PPG members. Not only does the PPG provide a patient voice and perspective relative to the Practice and the experience of being a patient with us, but the group has also taken a wider interest in healthcare provision and plans, locally and wider-spread, with individual members often attending external meetings and events and feeding back to all at the bi-monthly PPG meetings.

PPG membership is open to any registered patient and, to date the group has retained a strong core of members. Whilst the last year has seen some changes in membership, with a few members regretfully stepping down, the PPG has also been delighted to welcome new members.

The Practice, and PPG, extend their profuse thanks to all members who have left the PPG during the year, for their time and input whilst members of the group. In addition, special thanks must go to: Jim Hancock, who has continued in his role as elected Chair of the PPG; to Marilyn Berry who has also continued to serve as PPG Secretary and to Colin Ball who has served as Vice-Chair. All have worked extremely hard to plan, co-ordinate and run group meetings and events, to take notes and produce minutes and essentially to ensure the PPG is well-organised and fully-functioning, to the Practice’s great benefit.

PPG MEMBERS

As at the 31/03/16, the PPG included the following active members:

• Jim Hancock – Chair
• Marilyn Berry – Secretary
• Colin Ball – Vice-Chair
• Judith Hathrill
• Horace Sutherland
• Len Berry
• Sue Preston
• Christine Ball
• Gaynor Farran
• SarjitSangha
• Sue Bates
• Ann Whitehorn

No PPG member is related to Practice staff and all are PPG members on an entirely voluntary basis. No doctor or Practice staff member has voting rights within the PPG.

PPG MEETINGS / COMMUNICATION

The PPG aims to meet every two months, usually on Tuesday evenings at the main surgery. The Practice Manager, Karen Hoadley, attends all meetings and, as often as possible, one of the GPs also attends. Meetings are generally well-attended and always structured, with an agenda and minutes taken. Atypical agenda will include review and sign-off of the previous minutes, a report from the Chair, PPG work plan updates, any news from the Practice and any other business. Election of officers takes place in the first meeting following the PPG Annual General Meeting (AGM).

Every meeting provides an opportunity for open and friendly, lively discussion around matters of interest or concern. Strong bonds have been formed between PPG members and whilst meetings and activities are conducted in an efficient and professional manner, no meeting is without some laughter and lighter moments, personal catch-ups are plentiful and a Christmas meal out has become a PPG tradition!

We have dedicated PPG noticeboards at both the main and branch surgeries, where patients will usually find (unless they have been removed by patients!) copies of recent minutes, PPG annual reports, notices, etc. We also have pages for the PPG on the Practice website which can be found at

PPG ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS - 2015/16

Care Quality Commission (CQC)

CQC inspections are carried out at regular intervals in healthcare settings including general practice, hospitals, care homes and dental surgeries, with a view to assessing how well the provider is complying with a set of key standards, to establish if services are: safe; effective; caring; responsive to people’s needs and well-led.

The Practice underwent its first routine CQC inspection on the 28th October 2015 and the inspectors were keen to meet with representatives from the PPG as part of their inspection.Those members able to attend on the day were asked a number of questions about the PPG, the Practice and our interaction and relationship with it and our thoughts regarding the Practice from a patient perspective. Overall, we felt that we gave a very good account of ourselves both as a group and as registered patients and the CQC representatives were sufficiently impressed by our response.

We were delighted to learn that the Practice received an overall rating of “Good” when its CQC report was published earlier in 2016. The full report can be accessed via the Practice website (address as above).

Surveys

We have continued to support the Practice with the on-going Friends & Family Test survey, which PPG members helped roll out on its introduction. We agree with the Practice that the repetitive nature of this survey, and limited response it achieves, is becoming less useful to the Practice and less of interest to patients. As a consequence, the Practice has ceased to produce its quarterly FFT newsletters and will resume producing intermittent, general newsletters with news from the Practice and the PPG.

Despite the limited use of the FFT, we do feel there is benefit in conducting patient surveys and, although the mandatory requirement to carry out an annual patient satisfaction survey has been removed, we are ever-ready to assist the Practice with the design and delivery of future surveys, which will help the Practice and PPG identify areas where improvements should be made, whether that be to standards of care, services, facilities or communication.

Patient Information Event

After many months in the planning, and tremendous group effort, the PPG finally hosted a very successful Practice Information Event for patients on Saturday 16th May 2015, which was well-attended, although we would have happily welcomed more visitors dropping in. The event was intended to provide patients with information, advice and potentially support from varied exhibitors, including Carers First, Alzheimers & Dementia Support and Age UK.

Stands were manned by staff or volunteers from the various groups, and where potential exhibitors were contacted, but unable to attend, they provided literature for display/pick-up. PPG members were on hand to promote the group and also to signpost patients to the various stands and sources of information available during the event.

The general consensus is that running the event was definitely worthwhile and this is something that we would like to repeat in the future, perhaps at a different time of day and/or at the branch surgery premises.

Saturday Flu Clinic

Many patients will be aware that the Practice holds an annual Saturday flu clinic, usually in early October, to try and vaccinate as many eligible patients as possible outside of normal surgery opening hours, to ease the burden on appointments.

For the last few years the PPG has assisted the Practice at these Saturday clinics in whatever ways are deemed most appropriate at the time. This assistance has included promoting new Practice services and generally offering any practical help on the day.We will look to have a PPG presence once again at the Saturday clinic for 2016, details of which should be available in the Practice and on its website from late-August onwards.

Annual General Meeting (AGM)

We held our PPG AGM on the 15/09/15 and this was well-attended by PPG members. Dr. Millar, attending, thanked the group on behalf of the Practice for our continued support, much appreciated by the doctors and confirmed to us that he would be retiring soon, sadly, having been with the Practice for 34 years. The Practice Manager, also in attendance, outlined a typical working day for her, which was certainly very varied! Our Chair reported on our activities during 2014/15 and thanked the Practice Manager for her help and support particularly in relation to our open day in May. PPG members all confirmed they were happy to continue their participation and all were duly re-elected. PPG officers were elected (re-elected as it transpired) at the next PPG meeting.

External Activities

As an established PPG, we are often contacted from groups/organisations such as Healthwatch Kent and the local Clinical Commissioning Group to provide them with feedback, input and assistance by attending meetings, joining groups, completing surveys, etc. We ensure all PPG members are aware of any such requests, as appropriate, and members who attend any external meetings, assist with projects, etc., feedback to the rest of the group at subsequent PPG meetings and/or by email to keep members posted and up to date with matters that may be of interest to them.

Our PPG Chair attends the regular PPG Chairs meetings, reporting back to the rest of the group accordingly. The Chairs meetings are very useful in enabling PPG groups in the locality to network and share ideas.

PPG PRIORITIES FOR2016/17

We will be looking to agree a work plan for the group, to carry us into next year, at our PPG meeting in September (Tuesday 20/09/16 from 7.00pm). Likely objectives will be:

• To see how we can assist with this year’s Saturday flu clinic.
• To encourage the Practice to carry out a patient satisfaction survey, although this may not be carried out until sometime in 2017 to allow time for planning. We will work closely with the Practice to agree any survey content and format and will again be willing to conduct a survey on behalf of the Practice if this is considered to be the best way of undertaking one.
• To look at the ways we communicate with patients and consider how we could enhance the PPG’s profile. This applies both in the surgery (both sites) andvia the Practice website.
• To continue to support the Practice in any ways we can and provide constructive feedback to it from a patient perspective.
• As ever, we hope to retain our solid PPG membership and will of course welcome any new interest in the group and, better still new members.

PATIENT FEEDBACK

The PPG has not only been involved in review of patient feedback, but weare also a valuable provider of feedback to the Practice. The Practice continually invites feedback from patients and offers and promotes the means to providing this in various ways, including:

• Practice website at
• Practice leaflet, available in-practice in paper form, or online at the Practice website
• Practice Statement of Purpose
• Patient surveys
• Friends & Family Test, introduced at the end of 2014, promoted in-Practice and on the website
• NHS Choices website at
• – link on our website takes patients directly to the Practice feedback page
• Suggestion boxes located in waiting areas at both surgery sites; noticeboards
• Practice newsletters
• Practice Complaints Procedure, complaints handling and regular review of complaints
• Engaging with patients face to face, by telephone, email or letter whenever possible, desirable or required

PRACTICE WEBSITE

The Practice keeps information on its website as up to date as possible, so if you do have internet access, you might like to check for any news re surgery closures, etc.; up-to-date information from the PPG; survey results; links to many other useful websites; details of how to access Practice services; how to contact the Practice or PPG; opening hours, etc.

E-MAIL

The Practice has an e-mail address:

They are happy for you to use this address for any general correspondence, such as comments or feedback regarding the Practice and its services.

Please do not use e-mail as a means of communication if your message concerns your/anyone else’s immediate clinical care, appointments or prescriptions/medication, as we cannot guarantee your message will be read or responded to in any specific timeframe.

PATIENT PARTICIPATION

If you would like to know more about the PPG or become involved, please pick up one of our PPG leaflets, readily available at the main and branch surgeries, email the surgery as above, or make personal contact at either surgery and one of us will be in touch with you.

Thank you for taking the time to read this PPG Annual Report 2015/16- we hope it has been of interest to you.

June 2016