Why not join a Patient Participation Group?

PPG Awareness Week aims to promote the role and benefits of Patient Participation Groups to patients, the public and health professionals, to create more understanding of the value of true patient participation also to promote the support available from the National Association for Patient Participation.


PPGs are about implementing real, positive change in their communities. Patients have long valued the relationship with their GP and general practice. However the dynamics of this relationship have changed over recent years – patients today rightly want more say in their own healthcare, they are better informed and expect to be treated as whole people, not just as a condition or ailment. 

PPGs have an increasingly important role to play in helping to give patients a say in the way services are delivered to best meet their needs, and the needs of the local community.


PPGs can help GPs to develop an equal partnership with their patients. They can help them to communicate accurately and honestly with individual patients, and with the wider community about key health matters. They can also help to reduce costs and improve services by identifying changes that the practice may not have considered, allowing resources to be used more efficiently. What is more, they can develop mutually supportive networks for patients and the practice, outside of individual appointments.


For more information about the benefits of PPGs, go to http://www.napp.org.uk