Background

Aldborough Surgery is situated in a large rural area 7 miles from the coast of North Norfolk. It serves a population of approximately 3,700 spread out across numerous parishes between Cromer to Aylsham and Edgefield to North Walsham.

Aldborough Surgery had been running a successful Patient Participation Group (PPG) for some years. When needed the surgery always had plenty of willing helpers happy to support vaccination clinics and in developing the community woodland on a piece of land belonging to the practice. However, with so many other volunteering and social opportunities on offer nearby sustaining membership of the PPG committee was becoming a challenge.

So, the practice manager and PPG Chair came up with a new model for keeping in touch with their patients and listening to their views about accessing care from the surgery. Instead of hosting meetings at the practice, a strong link has been forged with Village Care of which the Chair of the PPG is a committee member and a link to all the community opportunities Aldborough has to offer. Any feedback collected is fed back to the practice.

Alongside this the practice has also developed a special area of their website to act as a “Patient Voice”. The aim being to keep patients up to date about what’s going on at the surgery, but also to provide learning opportunities for the Surgery on patient needs and ideas, and to achieve wider patient reach. This includes surveys, feedback mechanisms, surgery news, health and wellbeing tips, and links to all the local support and social opportunities available in Aldborough.

Aldborough Surgery sees its role as an integral part of the local community as important and works with their patients to make sure they really understand what matters to them.

Our Aims

• Contribute to practice decision-making.
• Provide feed-back on patients’ needs, concerns and interests and challenge the practice constructively whenever necessary.
• Assist the practice and its patients by arranging voluntary groups/support within the community.
• Communicate information which may affect health care.
• Give patients a voice in the organisation of their health care.
• Promote good health and wellbeing by encouraging and supporting activities within the practice and promoting preventive medicine.