Patient Participation Group (PPG)

 

The SMG Patient Participation Group work voluntarily to provide a two-way communication between patients and staff and supports the practice in improving the service provided to patients. We aim to represent patient views and provide the means for patients to make positive constructive suggestions about the practice.

The PPG group consists of registered patients, Operations Manager and a GP. The group meet to suggest positive ideas and voice concerns usually every two months in the evening at one of our surgeries.

The aim of our PPG is to provide the following:

  • Provide an opportunity for patients to make positive and constructive suggestions/ideas about the practice
  • Work positively to help identify any problems and engage with the practice to seek solutions.
  • Liaise with the practice to provide practical support and to help patients take more responsibility for their own health.
  • Help the practice to deliver change.
  • Support the practice in its aim for excellence.

Swan Medical Group PPG snippets 2 April 2025

Surgery update

After an update on staffing changes, the main subject of discussion was again the difficulty some patients were having getting through on the phone. However, the surgery reported that 8 new call handlers/receptionists have been recruited with a further 3 to join. The call handler/receptionist staff now stands at 30 strong. There is however a fairly high turnover due to to the pressure of the job and on occasions, unwelcome interactions with patients.

The telephone system has been adjusted to only turn off the callback option when there are 100 patients in the queue rather than 50. The PPG noted that the 5 surgeries take nearly 25,000 calls a month and that a number of other surgeries in Hampshire do not offer telephone contact at all. Waiting time on the phone had reduced by 5 mins in March.

 The GP partners are well aware of the pressures on the system caused by high demand, insufficient GPs nationally and pressures elsewhere in the health system. They now see 40 patients per day in accordance with national guidelines rather than the 60 per day they were seeing in previous years.

The PPG were pleased to hear that the Swan Medical Group have had their Learning Disability and Dementia Friendly status renewed, to include Riverside surgery.

Car parking at Swan Petersfield

The difficulty of adequate car parking at Swan Petersfield was again discussed. The Council had turned down a request for a pedestrian crossing outside the surgery. The Swan staff undertook to look again at whether car parking could be extended noting the significant lack of space and the presence of trees with TPOs.

Patient survey

The PPG agreed that it was time to do another patient survey using a written questionnaire to be distributed to a random selection of patients attending the 5 surgeries during a chosen way.

Health promotion event

Some of the arrangements for the next health promotion event on 26 April 2025 were discussed. The theme is ‘How to live well in old age’.

Hants and IoW PPG forum.

Feedback from the most recent PPG forum was given together with feedback from a recently established Facebook group for Hampshire PPG chairs. The PPG chair gave his view that in several ways the Facebook forum may be more useful.

The next PPG meeting will be on 16 July 2025.

    The Swan Medical Group PPG met on 25th Jan 2025. Among the items discussed were:

    Surgery update

    The PPG discussed recent issues with the telephone system, particularly immediately after the Christmas break. Several patients were surprised that no callback was offered at times, despite this being the normal mode of operation. The Swan team explained that a few issues arose particularly immediately after Christmas and these were:

    • Very heavy demand
    • Surgery staff sickness
    • A limitation on the number of callbacks that can be handled at any one time in the phone system

    This meant that at times callbacks could not be offered either because of system overload or because the surgery had to withdraw them as there would not be time in the day to return the calls.

    The PPG understood these problems but asked that the telephone messages be updated with fresh information when call backs are not available. They also noted the very heavy demand on the telephones looking at the figures for December 2024:

    9620 Calls answered – approx. 480/day

    4897 – Call backs – approx. 245/day

    27 minutes 24 seconds – average wait time for call to be answered.

    The Swan team advised that under the new NHS England GP contract, which comes into force in March 2025, GP surgeries must offer E consult service between 8:00 AM and 6:30 PM. This does unfortunately mean that the early morning and early evening E consult slots will have to be withdrawn as the workload in answering all the E consults would be too high. However it was emphasised that the target for an E consult reply is 48 hours and that urgent issues should be dealt with by telephone or personal attendance.

    Health promotion events

    The PPG noted the positive feedback from the digital teaching events held before Christmas, particularly the one-on-one sessions in the surgery and the U3A teach in which they (U3A) have asked to be repeated. The PPG hope that these can be repeated later in the year.

    The PPG then discussed potential subjects for the next health promotion event and taking the feedback from the vaccination clinic queues and a Facebook poll. It was decided that the next health promotion event will be a combination of advice on healthy living with a particular emphasis on living well in old age. It is hoped that the event can be held in mid-April either just before or just after Easter; full details will be published later in the spring.

    Any other business

    In AOB there was some discussion about the pressure on limited car parking spaces for both the pharmacy and Swan surgery in Petersfield. The Swan team explained that they had tried to expand car parking to the east of the surgery or by way of a lay by in swan street but these proposals had been rejected by the council. The PPG felt that it might be worth writing to the Council to point out that they should be more flexible given the number of elderly patients needing to drive to either the pharmacy or surgery in Petersfield.

    Date of next meeting

    the next meeting of the PPG will be held at the Swan surgery on the 2nd of April 2025.

    In our aim to educate patients and develop self-help the PPG arrange health and awareness events once or twice a year, and to date we have covered:

    • Men’s health
    • Women’s health
    • Dementia
    • Carers support
    • Child/baby health
    • Stroke awareness
    • Heart health
    • Diabetes
    • Asthma, Eczema and Hay fever

    Current Swan Medical Group PPG members (2024):

    Peter Agnew (Liphook Village)
    Brian Bartholomew (Swan Petersfield)
    Ruth Bonner (Swan Petersfield)
    Linda Collett (Liphook Village)
    Frances Dowty (Liss Hillbrow Surgery)
    David Ford (Swan Petersfield)
    Jenny Hance (Liss Hillbrow Surgery)
    Ros Humphreys (Riverside Surgery)
    Ella de Jongh (Swan Petersfield)
    Jenny de Jongh (Swan Petersfield)
    Julia Maughan (Liss Hillbrow Surgery)
    Sonia Meredith (Liphook Village)
    Ray Morton (Riverside Surgery)
    Mike Peters (Swan Petersfield)
    David Snelson (Swan Petersfield) Chair
    Ann Tremain (Liphook Village)
    Andrea Venn (Swan Petersfield) Minutes secretary

    Patient Reference Group

    We also have a Patient Reference Group (PRG) who we contact from time to time, usually by email but we can also contact you via post if necessary.

    If you would like to join our PRG please contact the surgery for more information or send us an email to: hiowicb-hsi.swanmedicalgroup@nhs.net

    patient participation group