What is the Burma Hills PPG?

The PPG is a small group of Burma Hills patients who meet roughly once per month, usually on a Thursday evening, to discuss ways of assisting the surgery in its aims. The group was created in October 2011, and currently has 5 patient members, plus a small number of other volunteers who are happy to help out from time-to-time with specific projects. In contrast to many other local PPGs, we aim to keep things informal. We communicate by email between meetings, but we generally find that we get far more done sitting around a table for an hour or two.

Patient Survey

The PPG runs a yearly patient survey on behalf of the practice to gather feedback from patients. Government legislation requires practices to survey their patients at least once per year, but even if they didn’t, we do like to gather patients’ views about what we are doing well and what we could be doing better, and to give them an opportunity to air their views about the surgery.

In the past, we have conducted the survey on paper (including this year’s survey, which was done during February/March), seeking the views of patients visiting the surgery over a period of a couple of weeks. However, we are now actively recruiting patients to our PRG to perform this role. We will need approximately 100-200 patients who are willing to give their views, usually once or twice a year and preferably online, but we can also send out surveys by post if you are not comfortable using the internet. It is important that we get a representative cross-section of the surgery’s patients involved in the process.

WAPPG

A member of our PPG also a represents us on the WAPPG (Wokingham Area Patient Participation Group Forum), which is made up of members of the local PPGs plus representatives from the WCCG (Wokingham Clinical Commissioning Group). This group helps to develop and steer health services for the wider area.

PPG News

You will find a dedicated PPG noticeboard in the surgery waiting room. Minutes of meetings and other PPG-related items are displayed there. Minutes of meetings will also be published on this website.

Achievements

• Designed and collated the results from the 2012 and 2013 Patient Surveys
• Co-ordinated with local youth groups to paint the perimeter fence
• Help to increase patient numbers and patient awareness by
  – Helping to get surgery signs created and fitted
  – Creating a “brand” for the surgery
  – Updating the patient leaflet (both design and content)
  – Creating this surgery website
  – Leaflet drops to new homes in the area

Patient Reference Group

What is a Patient Reference Group?

We would like to know how we can improve our service to you and how you perceive our surgery and staff.

We aim to gather around 100-200 patients from as broad a spectrum as possible to get a truly representative sample. We need young people, workers, retirees, people with long term conditions and people from non-British ethnic groups.

To help us with this, we are setting up a Patient Reference Group (sometimes known as Friends of the Surgery) so that you can have your say via online surveys. PRG members will be invited to respond to the annual patient survey, and any other ad hoc surveys that the PPG or Area PPG may deem useful throughout the year, including some commissioned by the CCG (Care Commissioning Group) to determine priorities for services – including, but not limited to, hospital and other clinical services in the wider area.

Emails will be sent by Burma Hills PPG (ppg.burma.hills@gmail.com). To ensure that you receive our surveys, please add this address to your whitelist or your contacts list. If you would prefer to get surveys by post, we can do that too.

The Mailchimp signup form below asks about gender and year of birth. You do not need to answer either question, but we have two reasons for asking:

• If we have need to do a more targeted survey (e.g. one that applies only to women, or only to patients over (or under) a certain age), we don’t need to bother PRG members who don’t qualify. If you choose not to answer the questions, you may receive surveys that don’t apply to you.
• It is also helpful to us to get a good cross-section of patients of both genders and all ages, so filling in these details helps us with that.

You can register online as a PRG member here. We also welcome members who are not able to complete surveys online, and can send surveys by post if you prefer. We will be in touch shortly after we receive your form.

The PRG is administered by the PPG (Patient Participation Group – a group of 6-8 patient volunteers who meet every 4-6 weeks to discuss matters relating to the surgery). The surgery staff will not even know that you are a member of the PRG, and all surveys are anonymous, so you can express your views freely, without fear of your answers in any way affecting the care you receive from the surgery staff. If you would like to get even more involved, and join the PPG, please choose the relevant option on the form, and a PPG member will be in touch.

Remember that all your survey responses are anonymous, and PRG members’ contact details are not made available to practice staff, so you can be sure that you can express your views honestly, without fear that they might in any way compromise your healthcare.

Please note that the PPG is unable to respond to questions about medical conditions.

If you would like to get even more involved by joining the Burma Hills PPG and participating in our regular meetings, please email ppg.burma.hills@gmail.com.