We are looking to form an advisory group of patients whose members work voluntarily with the surgery, acting as “critical friends” to help the practice improve services for the patient population.
The practice feels it will be extremely beneficial to have patient involvement and that the group’s constructive and challenging views help the surgery to better understand the patient perspective and be more responsive in their service delivery.
Why have a group?
The delivery of general practice is changing under the NHS and practices continue to face a variety of challenges. General practice is the most commonly used point of access in the NHS.
As healthcare is being brought closer to the patient, the practice is being required to ‘deliver’ more each year. It is therefore important that these resources are used wisely and that the patient perspective is considered.
What will the group do?
It is envisaged that the group will provide a forum to work with the practice on a variety of different areas, including such issues as:
- Considering service suggestions which could be of benefit to patients
- Determining responses to patient satisfaction surveys
- Improving communication between patient and surgery
- Acting as a forum to discuss complaint trends to seek improvements
- Acting as patient support for specific events
What the group cannot do?
The group is not a forum for individual agendas or personal complaints. If you have a complaint please speak to one of the practice team or follow the complaint procedure.
Patient Group meeting
While the group aims to be representative of the patient list of the practice, members are not considered delegates of the population and it is recognised that the views expressed are based on their own experiences.
Membership
This can be virtual and you will be asked to respond to two surveys during each year. If members would prefer to attend a face to face meeting, approximately bi-monthly, please identify on the form shown below.
Thanking you for your support,
Practice Manager.
27th November 2018