Dear Patients, carers and residents of Dover Town
The PCN would like to invite you to join the PCN Patient Participation Group (PPG) to shape the future of primary care in Dover.
Historically, each practice has held their own PPG and the feedback from patients has been solely about their practice.
With the changing Primary Care services to more Community based services, we would like to engage with patients from all of the practices to understand the local needs of our community and develop services together.
In practice, PPGs can play a number of roles, including:
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Advising the practice on the patient perspective
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Organising health promotion events
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Communicating with the wider patient body
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Running volunteer services and support groups to meet local needs
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Carrying out research into the views of those who use the practice (and their carers)
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Influencing the practice or the wider NHS to improve commissioning
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Fundraising to improve the services provided by the practice
If you’re interested in having a say in the way your local health services are delivered, getting involved with your practice’s PPG is a great place to start.
No training is required to be a member of a PPG – the most important thing is that you are keen and focused on taking positive action to help the practice and the local patient population.
All PPGs are different, but generally involvement tends to include attendance at monthly, bimonthly or quarterly meetings. Some PPG members will choose to take on additional roles that are more time consuming, such as editing/contributing to the PPG newsletter or setting up and running health education or fundraising events, but if you have less time available, this isn’t a requirement.
Not only can joining or starting a group help to shape the delivery of services, many members also find that volunteering is a great way to meet new people and develop your own skills, such as negotiation, dealing with people or even speaking in public.
To join Dover Town PCN PPG, please complete the survey below and a member of the PCN team will be in contact.
https://forms.gle/WxSvVMXZKx9i3Efi8