2 June 2009
National campaign launched to boost practice-level patient participation
Health bodies join forces to champion Patient Participation Groups
A national campaign has launched today to prompt an increase in the number of Patient Participation Groups (PPGs) in England. The campaign is a joint initiative run by The National Association of Patient Participation (NAPP), NHS Alliance, British Medical Association (BMA) and Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), and is supported by the Department of Health. The organisations have joined forces to raise awareness of PPGs as an ideal mechanism for general practices to engage with their local population, to encourage more widespread take-up by practices and patients and to promote an understanding of the benefit of PPGs.
The campaign was launched at an event at the RCGP this morning, where a programme of activity to engage PCTs, practices, patients and the public will be outlined. In addition, three publications will be launched at the event, to provide practical advice and highlight the importance of PPGs:
- Growing Patient Participation – promoting quality and responsiveness
- Growing Patient Participation – 21 ways to help your practice thrive
- Growing Patient Participation – getting started: a step by step guide to setting up a patient participation group
The launch marks an important milestone in the evolution of PPGs, which have been in existence for over 25 years, and are now present in 41 per cent of practices across the country. PPGs are made up of a range of patients, the Practice Manager and one or more GPs from the practice, who meet regularly to have open and constructive discussions about the services available and take action to increase the quality, effectiveness, efficiency and personalisation of care available.
Dr Graham Box, chief executive of NAPP, said: “All PPGs have the common aim of helping ensure GP practices remain accountable, dynamic and responsive to their local populations’ non-clinical needs. Practical, easy to set up and easy to join, PPGs are implementing real, positive change in their communities - from establishing schemes to helping transport the elderly to and from the practice to introducing counselling or bereavement services, and running fundraising events to buy new equipment for the practice. We hope to see a significant rise in the number being set-up over the coming months, with the help of the national campaign, as more GPs, Practice Managers and patients are made aware of their value.”
Dr Mike Dixon, chairman of the NHS Alliance, said: “Patient and public engagement is key to realising the ambition of a more localised, more personal and more efficient NHS, as laid out under the world class commissioning programme. PPGs are clearly a natural tool to help achieve this - evidence shows that they are already affecting real, practical improvements and can provide both practices and PCTs with vital input from the local population on service provision. The NHS Alliance is pleased to be part of the campaign, being launched today to prompt an increase in the number of PPGs in existence.”
Professor Steve Field, Chairman of the RCGP, said: "The relationship between GP and patients is a unique one and an equal one. The Royal College of General Practitioners was the first Royal College to set up a PPG over 25 years ago - patients' views are now an integral part of every policy we produce and we are a stronger College as a result.
"By having an active Patient Partnership Group in a GP practice, both sides can learn from each other and this brings great benefits all round, not least in helping practices run more effectively and providing services that local people need and want. We hope that this important campaign will be a major step forward in helping more practices to set up their own groups and promote patient partnership in its truest sense."
For more information on the campaign, and to download the three publications being launched, visit www.growingppgs.com.
ENDS
For further information or to arrange an interview please contact Ayesha Bharmal, Julia Dudley or Victoria Smith on 020 7839 4321 or email growingppgs@fishburn-hedges.co.uk.
Notes to editors
- The national campaign will run between 2 June 2009 and 31 March 2010 and will involve direct engagement, stakeholder and media relations.
- The National Association of Patient Participation (NAPP) was established in 1978 and has helped to foster the establishment of hundreds of Patient Participation Groups in primary care throughout the UK. It aims to see a Patient Participation Group, based on the mutual interests of the Primary Care Team and patients of the practice, in every GP surgery around the country.
- The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) is the professional membership body for family doctors in the UK and abroad. It aims to improve patient care, clinical standards and GP training throughout primary care.
- The British Medical Association (BMA) is the doctors’ professional organisation established to look after the professional and personal needs of its members. The BMA is a voluntary association that represents doctors in all branches of medicine all over the UK.
- The NHS Alliance is the only organisation that brings together PCTs with practices, clinicians with managers and board members - and NHS Primary Care with its patients. The NHS Alliance champions, supports and represents NHS primary care and all those working in it as a movement committed to a fair and progressive NHS that is free from the traditional tribalism of single interest groups.
- The national campaign is being supported by The Department of Health’s National GP Access Programme. It forms part of the Responsive Practice work strand, which is aimed at improving access to GP services by assessing and responding to patients’ needs and preferences.