Blog - 10 years as a patient participation group chair (The Patients Association, 8 February 2023)

Summary

A patient participation group (PPG) is a group of people who are patients of a GP surgery and want to help it work as well as it can for patients, doctors and staff. The NHS requires every practice to have a PPG. In this blog, Alan Bellinger reflects on what he has learned during his time as chair of his GP surgery's PPG, highlighting three key lessons:

1. Be collaborative not combative
2. If patients don’t engage with the PPG it’s your fault for not being engaging
3. Never lose sight of the value-add you create for the practice