You may have heard about a Patient Participation Group or PPG, but what is it, how can you get involved, and what do they do?
If you are in a group and want extra help/support, this page can help you.
Patient Participation Group – the facts
Each of the 105 GP practices across Norfolk and Waveney should have a Patient Participation Group, or PPG.
They are a team of volunteers who work in partnership with their practice to help make sure the voice of patients is heard.
They work in different ways. Some meet in person, some meet online, and others use a mixture of the two.
What do they do?
They represent the voice of local people feeding back ideas and suggestions on how to shape services and influence the help that is available.
They can make suggestions, provide feedback, and provide help and support with any health campaigns.
Case Studies
Healthwatch Norfolk met one of the team from the PPG at Thorpewood Medical Group in Norwich who talks more about how they can help in the video below
The Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care System highlights the work of the Aldborough PPG which took a new approach to working with the local community. Read more here
Supporting PPGs/PPG Toolkit
Each group is a voluntary organisation. As well as giving up their time, members have told us they would like some additional support, help and advice with running a successful group. We have created a PPG Toolkit which provides help and advice around running meetings, communicating with the community about the group’s work, and some information about health care structures and organisations. This was developed by Healthwatch Norfolk with support from the Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board and PPG members, and we are grateful to everyone who helped with this project.
Creating a toolkit was one of the key findings of a survey we did which looked at the roles of PPGs across Norfolk and Waveney, and any additional help/support they required. You can download the full report here
Additional information
The Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care System has a section on its website with further information about PPGs. You can find that here
