PPG Updates

On Thursday 26th May the PPG hosted a carers morning to celebrate the upcoming Jubilee. We had Jimmy O’Donnell present a truly lovely memories morning. All patients and carers who attended had a wonderful time with singing and reminders of the good old days. There was so much joy in the room remembering these days and celebrating this massive milestone of Queen Elizabeth’s Jubilee.

This is a real success story for our Thornton Practice Patient Participation Group.

Patient Participation Groups were made a contractual requirement for GP Practices in June 2015 and that is when Thornton formed its PPG. The purpose of a PPG is to be the eyes and ears of the patients to promote health issues and make all patients have as good an experience as possible.

To be given this award when the PPG has only been in place for just under 2 years is a fantastic achievement.

Thornton Practice PPG were announced as the Outstanding PPG out of 19 Practices across Fylde and Wyre.

This year’s awards ceremony took place at The Villa, Wrea Green and  the details of why our PPG won the award are listed below.

• _{Attendance at Flu Clinics to promote New Models of Care, Pharmacy+ scheme.  Collecting smoking data and identifying carers.}
• _{Participated at Carers’ Flu Clinic combined with a Macmillan Cancer Coffee morning to target carers alongside NCompass and Lancashire Well being  who gave advice.}
• _{Attendance at surgeries during Self-Care week promoting Pharmacy+, Patient Access and distributing Medical Passports.}
• _{Positive feedback received resulting in attendance at a PPG meeting by the Area Manager and Pharmacist from Lloyds Chemist to explain the Repeat Prescription system resulting in far more scrutiny and accountability.}
• _{PPG members trained as Dementia Friends and Cancer Champions.  The Chairman has been cascading this down to groups in the area.}
• _{PPG has had presentations on Vanguard raising awareness for Community implications}
• _{Important input into a  patient’s legacy.  Patients will benefit from the purchase of a Health Check Machine, wrist watch monitors and ECG, and beds in consulting rooms.}
• _{Continuous Links with local schools on Healthy Lifestyle and Wellbeing to produce an Art Exhibition in Surgery.}
• _{Facebook page set up to link all NHS news locally and nationally and also inform patients of surgery news and initiatives.}
• _{Production of a Healthy Living Exercise booklet.  GPs using them as a reference for patients.}

To recognize the work of the PPG within the Practice and honour their UK award, the doctors treated the PPG to an afternoon tea as a thank you. The PPG were overwhelmed by this gesture and it was a wonderful afternoon where the PPG along with Amy, Michelle and Bev had a wonderful celebration.

Listening to patients is a really important feature of our PPG and regular sessions have been held weekly throughout the Autumn and will continue as the feedback from them has been superb.

Whilst these activities have been going on, the PPG Group have carried on with their engagement with the schools. Their continued association with Royles Brook Primary School has resulted in a project on Self Care and a calendar with home advice and art work around all common childhood ailments. The calendar, priced at £2.50, has been on sale at Brian House, Royles Brook School and Thornton Practice.  All proceeds will go to Brian House Hospice.

The Evening Gazette Education Awards ceremony took place on 25 November in the Tower Ballroom.  Royles Brook were nominated in the Health and Wellbeing category for their work with the PPG on Mindfulness and Self-Care and were highly commended in their category.

The Practice Flu Clinics were very busy with many patients being vaccinated. The new system of appointments had a few teething troubles during the first half hour which were soon resolved and the PPG were on hand to help those with mobility issues and other queries.

This is a national campaign across all surgeries whereby patients are given advice on all types of health issues, when to see a doctor and how to self-treat at home.

The PPG wanted to give advice on cardiac arrest, stroke and atrial fibrillation. This was enhanced by a visit from North West Innovations Agency who demonstrated CPR and the use of a Defibrillator. Members of the PPG along with patients, Rotarians and Inner Wheel ladies were all given an excellent training session.

The PPG have made it their job to produce a clear map of all the De Fib sites in the Neighbourhood.

After the success of Jimmy O’Donnell’s visit in the summer, a patient kindly donated money for his fee so that the PPG could hold another one.  Again many carers and their loved ones turned up to relive Christmas Memories and enjoy Christmas Treats and Coffee whilst joining in.

The first session was held in the Community Room at the Practice on 3 December and hopefully will be the first of many.  It is a chance for Dementia patients and carers to drop in and get advice and support at what is a very difficult time.

This will run from December to March on the first Tuesday of every month for two hours, 2.00 until 4.00.

Again North Fylde Rotary have donated £300 so that hampers can be delivered to 10 needy homes across the Neighbourhood.  The Health Visitors advised on those families with the most need and the PPG will pack up the beautiful hampers in time for Christmas.  The hampers will be packed with everyday staples along with lovely Christmas treats.

The Health Visitors really enjoy seeing the reaction when they arrive with the hampers. Thank you North Fylde Rotary.

We are very proud and pleased to announce that our fantastic PPG have won a national award!

At this year’s National Association for Patient Participation (NAPP) Conference that took place on 15 June, Thornton Practice PPG won the award for PPG of the Year.  This is an amazing result and comes hot on the heels of being a runner up at last year’s conference.  The award comes with a cash prize of £500 which will be spent on projects that the PPG agree will benefit patients and the Practice.

Our volunteers are the most hard working bunch of people and rightly deserve this award which gives them national recognition.  It is the first time that a PPG from the North West of England has been given such an honour.

The PPG is currently looking for new members so if you want to be part of this award winning team contact reception on 01253 956282 and leave your contact details.

At the recent Fylde Coast Health Champion Awards held in March at Ribby Hall, once again Thornton Practice PPG won two awards.

The Practice was named as the most engaged GP Practice in the area and the PPG’s Chair, Gemma Jackson, was highly commended in the Volunteer of the Year award.

This is the third year running that the Practice and the PPG have been given awards and just goes to show how a group of volunteers drawn from the Practice’s patients can achieve outstanding results and make a real difference to the patient experience.

A fantastic effort to all concerned and I am so proud of everyone who took part as it was a real Dream Team today from Amy, Liz, Karen and Lisa from the Practice with Howard, Cath,Ann,Irene, Dennis,Elizabeth, Jill, Patsy and Steve. Morrisons were so helpful with setting up and the Pharmacy provided help all day and there was a lovely cheerful atmosphere with everyone pulling together. The manager Mr Tanveer and Pharmacist Ameen were a ray of sunshine.

Thanks one and all.

Gemma

At the National Association for Patient Participation (NAPP) conference recently, Thornton Practice PPG was honoured to be runner up in the national PPG awards. Gemma Jackson, the PPG’s Chair, attended the conference in Nottingham in June and was presented with a cheque for £250. Thornton Practice is proud of the PPG and the members fully deserve this national recognition for their outstanding work.

Thornton Practice PPG were announced as the Outstanding PPG out of 20 Practices across Fylde and Wyre for the second year running!!

Fylde and Wyre CCG held its PPG Awards in March 2018 at Ribby Hall and we are proud to announce that the Thornton Practice PPG won the PPG of the Year award for the second year running. The PPG was also Highly Commended in the Most Engaged PPG category and the Chair, Gemma Jackson, was highly commended in the Volunteer of the Year category.

This is a real success story for our Thornton Practice Patient Participation Group.

The PPG has been involved in numerous initiatives during the past year; the group has worked extremely hard and these awards were very well deserved.

It has been a trying year so far with the flooding in November at Thornton Practice. Over the next few weeks staff will be based at Carleton Branch (which is now closed) to receive deliveries etc, but the premises will still remain closed to patients and the public for the time being. The staff have worked really hard to continue to deliver a full service from the Thornton site and has been providing the same number of appointments during this time.

The PPG have seen how well the Practice has managed all the challenges these events have brought; it is the engagement that exists between the Practice that has resulted in our PPG being awarded ‘Most Outstanding’ out of the 20 Practices in Fylde and Wyre. Also, our Practice staff were recognised for their Engagement with the patients along with Gemma Jackson as Chair.

Following on from last year’s successes, the PPG had a lot to live up to and have introduced a Listening Table on a regular basis where members of the PPG are there to listen to any queries or worries that patients may have and try to help directly or point them to someone who can.

The PPG has held activities both in and out of the Practice; the main event was at Stannah Country Park on June 23^rd. This was the BioBlitz, held in partnership with Wyre Council. The focus was on Healthy Heroes and the Environment.  It was a fun day for all the family with craft fun for the children, Health Watch Sessions with doctors doing heart and blood pressure checks.

Another art competition was held and this time it was Thornton Primary School’s turn to show their Art Project.  The winning entries are on display in the waiting areas.