Patient Group Minutes 

The minutes of the Patient Group meetings are below.

PPG Minutes

Minutes of South Park PPG 14th April 2026

• In Attendance – R.Coward, E.Hanlon, J.Elliott, M.Lockhart, P.Day, R.Bates & V.Boomla.
• Apologies – C.Duncombe, E.Ali-Faik, F.Kirkpatrick & L.Gladdish.
• Agenda Topics – Patient Feedback, Newsletter plans, New procedures in the practice, New plans for integrated care systems & Group discussion points.

Discussions

Action register

The group discussed having an internal “Actions Register” so the PPG & the practice can keep track of all of the actions we discuss in meetings. This will be created by Elizabeth who will be sending this round shortly for review by the group.

Patient Feedback 25/26

In 2025, the practice began sending out personalised practice feedback to patients. This is created by one of our admin team members & sent out via AccuRx to all registered patients with contact permissions on. The results from this feedback were very mixed. People praise our clinical staff for their knowledge, professionalism and help. Many people said they feel comfortable & in control of their health decisions while registered here. People however reported that the call wait times can be a bit of a let-down and the AccuRx systems can be a little confusing. This was echoed within the PPG group discussion as well. We have recently put together a “How To” for AccuRx but this needs to be updated as the app recently just changed. We have agreed that once the new version is ready, it will be posted to our social media & also put up on our new patient notice board in the entry of the practice. The PPG has asked to see these results to help guide their future plans within in the group.

The survey results for the surgery from the annual NHS UK-wide survey from 2025 were also briefly discussed. These also highlighted general satisfaction with medical staff but highlighted issues with administration and the amount of time waiting for a GP appointment. PPG members have requested that survey results and patient feedback from all sources are discussed at future meetings. It was agreed, when appropriate, that feedback would be presented to the PPG with the results & some comments from the patients.

Newsletter

We have decided as a practice, rather than us sending round 3 monthly practice newsletters, we will be integrating information into our website design. For example, any changes to vaccinations will be posted as “NEW” under the vaccinations section. This will make finding & uploading information a lot faster & easier for patients to find. The PPG are discussing between themselves if they would like to distribute a PPG newsletter for distribution by the practice and to display on a noticeboard/have available in reception. This will be added to our action register so it can be re-visited once we have worked the details out. The PPG minutes we write out as a practice will continue to go in the PPG section under minutes.

Changes in the practice

We briefly discussed the recent changes in the practice. We have a new F2, Dr Kisat, following the departure of Dr Rayes. He started a few weeks ago and has now started with some clinics at the practice in the week. We also mentioned that we now have new forms on our website that people need to complete to get access to their medical records, their NHS app & proxy access. This is to protect each patient’s privacy further. We have also created a new patient notice board as you enter the surgery. This will have some community groups, “how tos” and monthly celebration events on there. This is a work in progress but will hopefully be useful for patients.

Integrated care systems

We touched base on the government’s plans to make all healthcare systems “speak to each other” to some extent. Currently, the biggest change we have seen is “Patients Know Best” which a primarily a secondary care system (hospitals ect). Most documents from your hospital visits will go on here. The primary care sector can access something very similar called “Graphnet”. Sometimes, a hospital document will go on here before it reaches us in the post giving us earlier access to records. So far, we are waiting on further system updates to come into place. Some discussion took place around the various apps used by patients to access their records (NHS App, Patient Access, myGP). As a surgery, we recommend using the official NHS app as this the main platform used by ourselves.

Other group discussion points

Following the general agenda discussion, the PPG members asked if the proposed changes to the NHS Contract would have any impact on the surgery. Rebecca confirmed that we will not be removing any services we currently offer & staffing levels will not be impacted.

Rose informed the PPG that she is now linked in with other PPG Chair groups within Kent and will report any items of interest in future meetings.

• A webinar is being run by the Patients Association (Future of hospital appointments: NHS online) on 11th May, 2pm which is free for anybody interested to join.
• A Health and Wellbeing Roadshow is being held at The Stag on 14th May, 10am – 4pm which may be of interest to patients.

We planned the next meeting date for July 21st at 2:30.

Want to join?

As always, South Park would welcome any new members to the group! If you or someone you know who is registered at the practice would like to join, please call reception who can get you in contact with Elizabeth to discuss details.

If you wish to discuss anything spoken about further, please reach out to a member of the team who can assist.