PatientParticipation

Group

Barry Ashbolt Vice- Chair -I work in the Public Health Section ofBlackburn with Darwen Council. I amvery passionate about the prevention ofillnesses, especially mental health andaddiction were early intervention canoften avoid a crisis

Peter Labett - My background is inNHS Personnel, I am the newest member ofthe PPG and look forward to working with thegroup in representing patients

Alan Pickup - I have been a patient for over30 years and was previously OperationsDirector for the Out of Hours Doctor Service. Iam interested in the health of Family Carers &those with Learning Disability and/or Autism. Iam currently Chair of Trustees of BwD CarersService who provide support to unpaid Carers.

Sheila Sadler - I am a retiredRGN and worked in Elderly Care inthe private sector. I have manyinterests and enjoy working with thePPG

Ann CrookI am a mum of 3 sons, I am joint Managerof West Pennine Slings CIC. I am aGovernor at the school my children attend.I have a special interest in I.B.D. havinghad Crohns Disease for 20 years

Darwen Healthcare Patient Participation Group 2018-19

Ian Townsend - I was formerly a teacher& nurse, I have experience of working with health-related subjects, including 25 years as anindependent complementary practitioner. I aminterested in supporting positive mental health.

Christine Sharples - I have beena patient of the Practice for over 20 years. Iam a Registered Nurse with wide experiencein Primary Care, Community NursingServices & Public Health. I have recentlyworked with Cancer Research andpassionately promote screening for earlydiagnosis

Tracy Jones Chair As Chair I am very active within thegroup and ensure that patients of allages, gender and needs areregistered with our practice arerepresented by the PPG

Caitlin Jones - I am passionateabout representing health issuesfrom the youth perspective andactively arrange/support eventsencompassing the youth of ourpractice

Carol Guys - I worked in SocialServices for 15 years and have been patient ofthe practice for over 30 years. I am interestedin improving services for patients andwelcomed the opportunity to join the PPG

Laura Geary

Karen Narramore

Jackie Budge

Wilf Halliwell Pauline Marshall

Ian Grimshaw

Other members of the PPG include

Sue Hill - Secretary I am Administrative Coordinator at thepractice and worked at the practice for sixyears. My role includes assisting the GPswith patient referrals and allocation of homevisits for patients. I attend the Bi monthlyPPG Meetings to provide administrativesupport

Message from the Chair of the PPG

Well, what a wonderful 2018/2019 we had. The Darwen HealthcarePPG has grown so much over the last twelve months with newmembers arriving at nearly every Meeting we have together with agrowing number of online Members joining us too. A lot of work hasgone into promoting our PPG within the Practice - throughNewsletters, our PPG Specific Notice board within our Practice andby word of mouth and the rewards for all that hard work is newMembers joining us.

During the last twelve Months so much has occurred regarding newMembers of Staff within our Practice, Prescriptions, Appointmentsetc. Then our PPG got involved in various campaigns regarding FluInoculations, Cervical Smears, Bowel Cancer, Mental Health,Homelessness, Loneliness, Veterans which all culminated in ourHealth Event being arranged in January 2019 and what a superbEvent that was with various disciplines coming together to make thewhole Event a great success and that came about from an idearaised at one of our PPG Meetings - proof, if needed, that the PPGMembers are very active within the Darwen Healthcare Practice.

2019/2020 is going to be very active within our PPG with newchallenges to get behind, working with other PPGs within our area,new outcomes to achieve etc - it's all going to be so exciting and Ican't wait. As Chair of Darwen Healthcare PPG some might say I'mbiased but I honestly can say that being a Member of our PPG hasmade me realise that there's so much as a PPG Member we can doto help our Practice in many ways on behalf of fellow Patients. Ofcourse, one thing we will be looking for is more new Members sowhy not give it a go, come to one of our Meetings and see what weget up to and I can promise you will get Tea/Coffee and Biscuits (anecessity).

Tracy JonesChair Darwen Healthcare PPG

Darwen Healthcare Patient Participation Group

Group Profile

Age

Gender

Ethnicity

The PPG recognises the need to be inclusive and would welcomemembers of Ethnic Minorities, Hard to Reach Groups and others whowould add diversity to our representation.

Meetings are held bi-monthly with ad-hoc meetings held whenprojects are being planned and delivered. The maximum commitmentwould not normally exceed 1 or 2 days per month, although there areopportunities to be involved in projects.

We are also interested in virtual members who can review proposalsand take part in surveys without the need to attend meetings.

For further information please ask at reception oremail:susan.hill13@nhs.net

The age range of members is towards theolder end and emphasises the need torecruit more in the 30-40 age group. Thispatient group may represent familymembers who have returned toemployment after bringing up a family andmay be infrequent service users

The gender spread is quite even although arepresentation of the gender neutral orcross gender as not been asked of themembership to see if any identify withLGBT preference

The group all identify as White British andsupports our efforts to recruit from the BMEcommunity

Project Work undertaken by the PPG

ELF DAY (FOR ALZHEIMERS)DECEMBER 2018

The Patient Participation Group worked with thePractice Staff to deliver a successful awareness andfund raising day for the Alzheimers Society

Thanks to the generosity of our patients andsponsors we had a very successful day raising over£400 to enable the Alzheimers Society to helpsufferers and carry out research in to this diseasethat robs us of our cognitive senses

HEALTHY DARWEN EVENT JANUARY 2019

WHITEHALL HOTEL, DARWENThe group proposed the idea of a Health Event dayand helped deliver what was a fantastic gathering of ahealth, social and charity services available inDarwen covering all four GP Practices to make this awell presented and received event

PPG helped to promote Cervical SmearAwareness Week Jan 2019

Fantastic achievement 53 patients attended anappointment during the awareness weekcompared with 33 patients in the Januaryawareness week last year.

That’s an extra 33% attendance

Remember this test may save your life!

You can download copies of the latest Darwen Healthcare Newsletters at

http://www.darwenhealthcare.co.uk/website/P81051/files/newsletter.pdf

Keeping Patients advised of Services

The PPG plays a big part in the Practice Newsletter that is sent out electronicallyeach quarter to patients who have subscribed and a copy is placed on the noticeboard across from reception. We encourage all patients to subscribe to keep inthe know with changes directly affecting the practice and those pertaining to thethe wider NHS and Social Care. They also raise awareness of screening andimmunisation to prevent illness or detect symptoms early to give a better chanceof treatment

The group also produced the Darwen Primary Care Neighbourhood guidecovering services available in Darwen this can be downloaded athealthydarwen.com

Darwen Healthcare PPG Survey May 2018

The Patient Participation Group carried out our annual survey in May2018. Patients had the chance to interact with PPG members andfind out more about their role in the Practice. As a result of the surveywe would like to share with you actions that have resulted from thefeedback provided

The PPG will be carrying out the 2019 Survey inMay this year, please help by taking the time tocomplete the survey and the opportunity to ask thePPG member more about our work with the Practice

On behalf of the practice I would like to thank thePPG for their continued support and help inpromoting services, both in the practice and thewider community health & social care providers.

Together we have accomplished some fabulousachievements over the past year and I look forwardto working with and seeing the PPG develop its rolefurther in 2019-2020.

Ann NevilleBusiness ManagerDarwen Healthcare