Patient Participation Group (PPG)

It was aimed at learning more about recognising such mental health issues, how to recognise the symptoms early and how to support the child's or adolescent's mental well-being.  The charity MIND, which provides advice and support to empower anyone experiencing a mental health problem, attended to give a presentation and to answer questions.  The lead doctor on this subject, from Snodland Medical Practice, was there to provide a local perspective on this very current and important subject and to answer questions. 

John Stockham, Chairman of the Patient Participation Group, commented, "We see in the media, nearly every week, where a mental health problem has affected a teenager or young person, often with catastrophic results.  This evening will give an insight into how to recognise such problems early and what to do about it.  I hope many parents and anyone who would like to know more, will come a

Look out for future information evenings, which will be advertised in Snodland's shops and businesses and on this website.

Our Aim

Our overall objective is to improve patients' experience when attending the surgery and when receiving treatment or services provided by, or related to, the Practice.

Who we are?

We are all patients of the Practice from diverse backgrounds, we meet on a regular basis to share views and ideas, address problems and to work with the Doctors and the Practice Manager to achieve our objectives. The Group currently consists of 12 members who mostly have links with their local community through their employment, local councillor, charity work and social networking. We always welcome new members (see below) and the only requirement is that you are a patient of the Surgery.

What we do?

As indicated above we meet with the Doctors and Practice Manager at quarterly intervals (occasionally more often according to need) to promote best practice and to create practical and achievable objectives to improve patient care, encourage patients to greater personal responsibility for their clinical conditions and make patients equal stakeholders in setting standards for the way forward. We visit the surgery to meet patients face to face in order to understand any concerns they may have and to explore ways to make the patient experience better.

We work with the Practice to produce and update the 5 year vision statement that the Practice has adopted, as well as a revised customer care policy.

We worked with the Practice to create a more standardised approach in answering the telephone and the ongoing running of the triage system, which has been very successful.  A new telephone system has been installed with many additional features making calling the Practice much easier and quicker.

Information is given to patients at check-in on how many patients are ahead of them waiting to be seen and patients are updated in the waiting room with the expected wait times for doctors.

Music was introduced in the waiting room some years ago to reduce the possibility of overheard conversations at the front desk.

Other initiatives such as the better use of technology in communicating with patients are ongoing, but the use of text messaging to patients with reminders of their appointments has considerably reduced the number of "no shows".  Patients can upload photographs, for example of skin conditions / injuries to be seen immediately by a GP or other healthcare professional. 

Do you have any issues or problems you can share with us?

If you would like to raise any issues or problems, or make suggestions as to how your experience as a patient could improve, please get in touch via email at  Patientgroup.snodland@nhs.net

Would you like to join us?

If you think you may be interested in finding out more about the PPG, why not come to one of our meetings and see for yourself. There is no obligation to join, but we hope that once you have met us and had a taste of what we do and how we do it, you will want to be a part of the PPG. Please fill out our online form:

JOIN THE PPG

If you are unable to attend the meetings, why not consider becoming a "virtual member". We will keep you informed by email, seek your views on various subjects and involve you fully in our aims and projects.  Just get in touch by emailing us.

The PPG has its own email address: Patientgroup.snodland@nhs.net and welcomes enquiries about its role and purpose as well as new member enquiries.

The information you supply us will be used lawfully, in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 and the General Data Protection Regulations 2018. This gives you the right to know what information is held about you and sets out rules to make sure that this information is handled properly.