Did you know that you had a patient representative group at Rye Medical Centre? If so, you need read no further, but for those who have never heard of such a thing, the acronym PPG stands for Patient Participation Group.
The group is made up of 11 elected patient representatives of the Practice, all of whom have an interest in the successful functioning of Rye Medical Centre. PPGs also exist for the Ferry Road and Northiam practices locally. The committee meets four times a year and a chairman is elected from within the Group. The practice manager and one GP attend.
Matters dealt with regularly include a practice report, outlining what is happening in the day to day running of the practice, a treasurer’s report and a chairperson’s report on interesting developments in the local healthcare system. The PPG is also responsible for the organisation of the paper and online survey of patient satisfaction. This year’s survey resulted in 450 responses overall, with the results indicating that the practice is perceived as being better than satisfactory on average. A number of useful comments were also made, which will be taken up over the next few months. These include waiting times in the surgery and the vexed question of music playing in the waiting area!
The latest meeting of the committee, held on May 18, made a presentation on behalf of all the patients to Dr Ben Chishick, who retired on March 31 this year, after working at Rye Medical Centre for 32 years. Mrs Jacky Dudfield, chair of the committee, reflected on Dr Chishick’s long career and the man behind the GP, his outside interests and specialties while he was working. For example, he only gave up his emergency work with the ambulance service in local trauma cases in December 2015.
The chairperson regularly attends strategic and other planning meetings organised by the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) which have direct relevance to the health care system as a whole. The PPG also raises money for the practice, to enable the purchase of equipment needed to improve the environment or supplement existing items. A main source of this income is the books on the shelf in the waiting area. Two of the latest purchases included a number of children’s chairs for the play area and a wheelchair to transport patients into the surgery from the car park.
Health Events are organised twice a year. The next one will be held on June 1.. Mr Simon Baer, ENT Consultant Surgeon, will be giving a talk on “Deafness: hear all about it”. 6pm for 6:30pm at Rye Primary School. Use the front entrance via Rye Sports Centre or Tillingham Avenue and there will be refreshments and a raffle.
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Photo: Gillian Roder