Patient Participation Groups

If you have regular visits to your GP and wish to have a better service from the practice, please can I recommend that people get involved with their Patients Participation Groups (some are known as Patient Reference Groups).

All GP practices have to be registered now with the Care Quality Commission to practice. To be registered they must have a Patients Participation Group (volunteers) that meets every few months.

The PPG makes it vital for GP's to listen to what their patients are saying. It is not a meeting to take up personal issues, but for GP's to explain what they are doing to improve their services, and what the patients would like to happen...

For example this year, the 3 most important areas of patient care that our GP's have been told to concentrate on by our authority are: OAP's, diabetics and Carers. You may think well, that is practically everybody.. But there are 1000's of epileptics, asthma sufferers etc and children. So the fact diabetics have been chosen is really good, but I would never have known this if I hadn't got involved with the PPG at my local surgery.

Rather than criticising our surgeries and healthcare services as many people do, it is an opportunity to get involved to try and work with them and to improve services...

Its not down to the surgery to publish the minutes of the group meetings. The PPG's should have a chairperson and a secretary and a good relationship with Practice Manager so that the minutes can be placed on their website with any surveys and a space allocated within the surgery for the minutes to be pinned to.
It is not down to the surgery to organise the PPG or to process the minutes, but they may well do so whilst the PPG is getting off the ground-so to speak.

I dont know the NICE guidelines for diabetics to have their reviews. I personally am never reviewed by my GP, and my consultants vary from 6 monthly to annually depending on how they deem necessary. I will have a look at guidelines though...

Are you type 1 or type 2?

So with your GP practice, why cant you join the PPG and ask them for mintes of their meetings. See whether diabetes care is ever mantioned etc. dont make it a personal issue but approach on behalf of diabetic patients for your surgery.

Our surgery has a group for online members and for persons attending meetings. Our surgery has 9500 patients.

Are you expecting to see your GP every 6 months or a diabetic nurse in your surgery?

Our surgery is now having to consider getting a specialist nurse instead of a gp because they have not had one single applicant from any doctor to them advertising their GP vacancy.

Many people do not consider seeing a nurse that is fully qualified to prescribe instead of seeing a gp.

I have a friend that is a GP and she admits that she relies upon the diabetic nurse in the surgery to know more than her.. My gp friend just sees herself as a 2nd check to the nurse and admits also that she has to look up all the diabetic drugs or medicines to check.. She does not know them as the dsn does.

To be honest, if you booked up to see a nurse when you want a review I doubt very much whether they would turn you away...

That is generally the way it appears that most practices would like their places to run with patients being more accepting that Nurses that are qualified to prescribe should be the first port of call especially if patients expect a same day appointment.

Specialist nurses are just that to me.. They specialise.. Gps just generally practice..

My surgery are trying to find ways to encourage patients to utilise the specialist diabetic nurse and the prescribing nurses before seeing a gp..

But if surgerys dont even get one application for a gp vacancy- what are the choices left to us patients?

I think medicine and life expectancy and population has progressed so much in past 100 years that we have to adapt and try to work with gp practices. GP's used to put themselves on a pedestal but that is changing and GP's now have to listen to their patients through the PPG's

From choosing between my GP friend who admits she's not up to date with diabetes.. (And she is only just over 30 years old) and choosing a specialist nurse.... I would definitely go for specialist nurse.... Even the nurses that are specially trained to prescribe are trained in specific details/symptoms etc to go through with patients.

With our population increasing, diabetes increasing as with cancers and life expectancys etc.. We have to be prepared to help our gp services to adapt and change, as must patients....

As said... Please consider asking if your gp surgery has a PPG and get involved if you want to help improve the services from a patients point of view....