Patient Participation Group

Would you like to become a member of the Patient Participation Group (PPG)?

The PPG are an important line of communication between the surgery and the patients.

The PPG are active in the surgery garden, hold coffee mornings for McMillan Cancer and other charities in the year. They also volunteer to help when needed with Flu/Covid Clinics.

If you would be interested in becoming a member please email:- f.patientgroup@nhs.net

PPG Terms of Reference - July 2024

PPG Terms of Reference - July 2024 (PDF, 184KB)

PPG Terms of Reference Appendix 1 - July 2024 (DOCX, 20KB)

February 2025 PPG

Chair’s Report from Marian Redding

Marian welcomed those attending and thanked Fusion for the use of their room.

17 patients attended

The keyword for both the PPG and GP Fern House is Communication. To this end you will soon notice a monthly Fern House newsletter developed by the team. Those who attended the PPG were invited to comment on the draft newsletter. An amended copy of this should be available shortly. Vice Chair John Wood is assisting the team with this.

As part of the job of PPG representatives on the Maldon and Witham PCN (Primary Care Network) Board. John and Marian are establishing links and visiting all the PPGs existing within the six practices in the group. We simply wish to establish clear routes for PPG issues to be brought to the Board and to ask for a regular agenda item to summarise these. This has already yielded some great ideas that we can share. More of this at the next meeting in April.

Regarding the NHS App - thanks to a meeting with Blackwater PPG we learned that all libraries can offer one to one appointments to show patients how to use the App. Witham library has afternoon sessions that patients can book.

In the wider NHS I want to draw your attention to the 10-year plan. This highlights the highlights three significant shifts required:

from an analogue system to a digital one
from care in hospitals to care in the community
and from a system that treats sickness to one that prevents ill health.

These key areas will guide health policy that we hope will lead to a service that better meets people’s needs - a tall order!

So how does primary care improve health? - Working within our primary care network of six practices we do this through vaccination and screening, through social prescribing referrals for social isolation, weight and lifestyle improvement and support for national programs such as diabetes prevention and bowel cancer screening. To broaden this, we need to work with partners - local authorities are the key partner but each locality has a range of innovative offers so local knowledge at practice and PCN level is essential.

Like many fantastic innovations in the NHS, which need robust systems behind them, IT systems can assist patients. One service of note is the My Recovery App now used to support hip and knee operation recovery.

As it is now the 5-year anniversary of Covid there are many reflections on this in the media. Patients might find the BBC 4 radio programme Inside Health ‘How did Covid 19 change medicine?’

How did Covid 19 change medicine?

Practice Information

We were pleased to welcome Sarah George, practice manager and GP Dr Wright. They informed us that several new staff would be joining the Fern team. Practice nurse Leena Jhundoo will undertake a range of duties and is doing further training in Asthma and COPD. This is a much-needed area of patient support. A new phlebotomist, Suely Welsh, is running blood tests clinics from 7-8 am on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays and from 8 am -12 midday on Wednesdays. Two new GPs have joined. They are Dr Abid and Dr Khan. The new patient services manager is Paula Stubbs. Her duties include overseeing reception and the patient experience. Staff additions make more appointments possible. Remembering to cancel an appointment if not required as this makes more space for others to obtain the care they need.

One area that was discussed was the addition of the Patches system which can be accessed from your NHS App or from the Fern House website. This allows you to send a message directly to reception rather than telephoning or going to the surgery. It has benefits to all and should remove some of the stress of getting through in other ways. We will discuss this further at the April meeting. Meanwhile the way to connect is from the App Home Screen to Services screen then Contact your GP about a health problem or Contact your GP for a document or update.

The next PPG meeting is on April 15th at 5 pm at Witham Fusion.

The following meeting is July 7th so at 5pm at Fusion. There will be a speaker from Mid Essex.

2025 PPG Meeting

Our next PPG meeting date has now been confirmed!

26th February 2025 16:00-1730 at the Witham Leisure Centre, Wellness Room.

If you wish to attend this, please contact reception.