Martin SmethersMember of

The Fordingbridge Surgery Patient Participation Group

The Fordingbridge Surgery

• Rural Practice on the edge of the New Forest with several outlying villages

• Some 12,400 patients on the patient list• 10 GP’s • 2 Nurse Practioners• 6 Nurses

Aims

• Unless you have the Practice staff, Doctors, Nurses and admin on side, then you are on a hiding to nothing

• The Practice and the PPG work in harmony, rather like a marriage

• Openness is essential• We are lucky in this respect

Aims

• The PPG are not there to resolve individual complaints, the Practice have procedures in place for this

• We are not going to change the World rather …

• We are there to help the Practice to make the best of the resources they have available to them for the benefit of all the patients

The PPG in Fordingbridge

• Formed in 2011• Virtual membership has increased from

181 in the first year to 688 currently• Executive Steering Group consisting of 6

patients, 2 GPs, the Practice Manager and her PA, meet every 4 - 6 weeks

Executive Steering Group

• Good leadership• Keep number small and workable, large

numbers are not essential, but quality is in order to complete tasks

• Leave meetings with defined objectives agreed and progress them

Communications• Virtual members are contacted on a regular

basis, others by email or post• Newsletter twice a year• Shorter Bulletins twice a year in between• 2 Public Health meetings a year, covering

topical subjects, a Q&A session, where patients can “have their say”

• Membership leaflet explaining what the PPG is, what we do and how. Also included in new patients packs

Communications

• Insertions in Local parish magazines• Posters around the town and villages• Videos on the media boards in the surgery

waiting rooms• We always ask for feedback and comments

to be forthcoming• An Annual Survey. This year we handed

out 1,000 and received back 643, a 64% return.