New Impetus for Patient Input?

Staff at Haddenham Medical Centre hosted a meeting of the Patient Participation Group (PPG) on Thursday evening, 27th June, and 28 patients of the practice attended. Dr Mark Howcutt and the new Practice Manager, Ellen Solley, were the main contributors, supported by Dr Kaye Smith and GP Trainee, Dr Mark Olavesen.

One of the key objectives of the meeting was to encourage greater 'ownership' of the PPG by patients, and to this end an election was held to select a Chairperson and a Vice Chairperson.

Three candidates had offered themselves for the role: David Lindsey and Keith Milmer from Haddenham and Barry Lynch from Dinton. Each gave a short formal presentation to the meeting. (You can read a summary of their biographical notes by clicking on the PDF document located under the Medical Centre image). Sadly for those present, David Lindsey withdrew from the election process after making a very eloquent presentation to the group.

Votes were then cast by the attendees on confidential slips. These votes were counted by Ellen Solley and added to the additional votes submitted in writing by those PPG members who were unable to attend the meeting in person. The outcome was as follows:

PPG Chairman: Keith Milmer (email: chairman@theppg.org)

PPG Vice Chairman: Barry Lynch (email: barrylynch@gmail.com)

Patient Involvement
The PPG is co-ordinating a data gathering process to explore how the Practice might adjust its appointments system particularly to help those who are in full-time employment and who therefore find it tricky to attend appointments at certain times in the day. To find out more, please see here.

More generally, if you are registered as a patient of Haddenham Medical Centre and would like to be involved in helping to shape the way that health care is delivered, please send an email to the PPG Chairman expressing your interest. This will give him your email address, and allow him to keep you in the communication loop. email: chairman@theppg.org

Don't use email? Drop a written note into the Medical Centre, addressed to the 'PPG Chairman'. We will need your telephone number as well as your address, please.