What PPG's Do

At its simplest, Patient Participation refers to patients taking an active interest in their health care. At present, most Patient Participation Groups operate within GP surgeries and health centres. Their priorities are developed and agreed locally in order to meet local needs and to reflect the interests and energies of the participants.

Some groups have, for some years, looked beyond the surgery to the decisions made within the NHS that directly affect their community. Regrettably, most often it has been in reaction to decisions taken without adequate consultation. In many cases, patients and primary care professionals have supported each other in promoting the patient and public interest.

Recent changes within the NHS are intended to deliver a more patient-centred service. As a result, there have been ongoing changes to the structures of formal, statutory public engagement. In England, for example, this has seen the demise of Community Health Councils, to be replaced by PPI Forums which, in turn have been superceded by Local Involvement Networks.

Patient Participation Groups have not been directly affected by these changes. This is because PPGs are not legally required but have developed on the basis of trust and goodwill from practices and patients alike. Nonetheless, the GP contract does include an incentive payment for practices to set up a PPG. This has led to a major growth in the number of PPGs and N.A.P.P. would like to see this increase in quantity matched by increases in quality.

Currently there are well over three hundred PPGs affiliated to N.A.P.P. and our major survey of primary care in 2005 and 2007 indicated that one in three practices now has a PPG. These groups are autonomous but their activities can usually be classified under one of the following headings:

• Strategic advice
• Health promotion
• Information provision
• Volunteer services
• Fundraising

Funding for these groups is commensurate with their activities. In the majority of cases costs are minimal. Recognition of the worth of an active PPG as a viable and necessary feature of practice, normally results in obtaining adequate funding. N.A.P.P. can advise of possible avenues to generate the resources that PPGs require to achieve their objectives.