Terms of Reference

Aim

The Patient Participation Group will support Frome Medical Practice by offering help, advice and guidance, to enhance both current provision and future developments.

Terms of Reference

The group:

1. Meetings are convened at the discretion of the Frome Medical Practice;

2. Will meet four to six times per year.  Additional ad hoc meetings and working groups may also meet when required;

3. Members will be asked to confirm annually that they:
a. are registered patients at the practice;
b. wish to continue being members of the Patient Participation Group;

4. Will only discuss issues and information that is normally in the public domain and will not normally discuss any issues that are confidential, and confidential issues will not be minuted;

5. May consider sensitive issues which are best regarded as confidential, and these will not be minuted;

6. Members will always use discretion, tact and diplomacy when discussing the Health Centre and PPG meetings in public, and will generally promote the practice;

7. May aid planning and could be consulted on service development and provision;

8. May provide feedback on patients’ needs, concerns and interests;

9. Act as a ‘safety valve’ for dealing with grumbles complaints together with positive suggestions about the practice;

10. May feedback to the practice information about the community in general, which may affect healthcare;

11. Will give patients a voice in the organisation regarding their care within the practice;

12. Liaise with other Patient Participation Groups in the area where appropriate;

13. Will elect members to chair and vice chair the meetings annually;

14. Will ‘self-review’ the effectiveness of the Patient Participation Group annually;

15. Will record brief minutes of each meeting, with actions and where appropriate, who is responsible for each action;

16. Will confirm accuracy of minutes of previous meetings and make amendments where necessary, which will then be formally endorsed by the Chair;

17. Will be invited in advance to submit items for the agenda – normally notice will be given one month prior to the meeting, and no later than two weeks before the meeting;

18. Will promulgate agenda before a meeting – normally two weeks before a meeting;

19. Will be aligned with any online or other patients group that there may be at the practice,  working in the context of these terms of reference;

20. May discuss issues raised by virtual PPG and Youth PPG members;

21. May invite virtual PPG and Youth PPG members to meetings;

22. Will circulate PPG agenda and minutes to online or virtual patient group and Youth PPG’s; 

23. Will invite representatives from The Friends of Frome Hospital to the PPG; and will respond to a reciprocal invitation;

24. Is not a political forum for serving politicians, although politicians may be invited to attend meetings on an ad hoc basis; 

25. PPG reminder to all, one day before meeting;

26. Minutes of previous meetings to be sent out with the agenda and reminder;

27. Terms of Reference to be reviewed annually.

Ground Rules

Members will:

1. Not use the meetings as a forum for individual complaints and single issues;

2. Have open honest communications and a courteous exchanges between individuals;

3. Be flexible, ask for help and support each other;

4. Demonstrate a commitment to delivering results as a group;

5. Understand that silence indicates agreement – speak up but always go through the Chair;

6. Listen to all views expressed at the meetings;

7. Ensure that there are no phone or other disruptions;

8. Start and finish meetings on time. Where the agenda is ‘full’, items will be allocated times, the Chair may use their discretion to defer items to future meetings if necessary;

9. Stick to the agenda;

10. Wherever possible raise issues for the agenda before the meeting – thus giving the practice sufficient notice to prepare responses;

11. Understand that items raised without notice at a meeting may need to be deferred to allow time for a response to be prepared.