Patients and staff working for mutual benefit

Balham Park Surgery Liaison Group (BPSLG) is a patient-led participation group formed in September 1999. Its activities are led by a volunteer committee of approximately 15 people, which any member of the practice may join. Evening committee meetings are normally held every 4 to 6 weeks. Practice representatives always attend. We are not a "patients only" group: BPSLG's rationale is to work with its practice for mutual benefit.

BPSLG's membership is opt-in. We use our membership database to communicate with fellow patients who have provided their contact details. Currently there are some 300 members, all of whom receive the regular BPSLG newsletters and notification of special events. Many more newsletters are distributed via the surgery reception. You can read our newsletters on this site.

The BPSLG Noticeboard prominently positioned in the waiting area in the surgery displays the committee contact list and minutes of most recent meeting. Anyone wanting to get in touch with BPSLG can leave a note for the committee at Reception - we have our own mailbox which is checked regularly.

BPSLG is in its fifth year of operations. Initial funding was provided by the practice partners themselves. Subsequently, the BPSLG Committee secured financial support from the Balham Tooting and Wandsworth Primary Care Group. Years three and four were funded by the Wandsworth Primary Care Trust linked to specific budget proposals agreed by the Committee. BPSLG worked collaboratively with the WPCT to outreach to other practices in an effort to encourage the establishment of similar groups in the borough. An open seminar for all Wandsworth practices interested in patient participation groups was organised at the end of 2002.

What we do now

Here are BPSLG's Strategic Objectives for 2003 - 2006

Ensure the Group has a wide and representative membership from the surgery's expanding patient population and develop the Group's contacts with other patients not yet actively involved with BPSLG through meetings and the quarterly newsletter
Focus the Group's activity on learning about and keeping up to date with practice developments.
Work collaboratively with practice staff in handling ideas, comments, concerns and complaints (all in anonymised form) which the surgery receives from patients
Contribute to patient satisfaction/opinion surveys at the surgery and to the monitoring and evaluation of performance and other targets set by the practice
Organise a repeat open meeting for surgery patients who are interested in alternative therapies and complementary medicine and organise additional open meeting(s) on different issues about which surgery patients express an interest
Develop a joint approach with the practice staff for special needs awareness training for the benefit of surgery staff and Group members
Help other surgeries to develop Patient Liaison Groups through the Primary Care Trust's strategy for patient and public involvement, by being an example of good practice able to share learning with other surgeries
Develop ourselves as Group members by sharing the functions of chairing meetings, taking minutes, organising special interest events and other administrative tasks

Here is the progress report on achieving our objectives, June 2003 - June 2004, made to the most recent Annual Open Meeting :

Wide and representative membership - More people now regularly attend open committee meetings; many new faces, young and old, reflecting our diverse practice and community. Educational sessions are getting the message out more widely. We produced three newsletters - circulation now 400+ and rising steadily.
Focus on practice developments - continuing exchanges with PCT on impact of new GP contract and out of hours arrangements for this surgery; yoga referral classes continued until March - three groups completed. Exercise advice sessions now available at surgery; arrangements for pharmacist reviews of medication for over 75s.
Work collaboratively on comments, concerns and complaints - each meeting considers anonymised comments and concerns and discusses the practice's response and what it means for overall user satisfaction and engagement with the surgery. Views on the new automatic front doors and adequacy of external lighting are examples.
Contribute to surveys and targets - prioritised 2003 "Improving Practice Questionnaire" and prioritised outcomes: 1st = information through surgery about illness prevention; 2nd = knowledge about services available; 3rd = continuity of care. Commented on new practice brochure; gave views on the PCT's plans for its PALS service; identified benefits of patient participation for evaluation of groups like BPSLG for the PCT
Evening educational sessions - by popular request we repeated the complementary and alternative therapies session with Dr Bower; organised a new session on diabetes with Dr Mounde; planning a session on "skin health" - all in response to topics people said they wanted.
Special needs and diversity training - practice and BPLSG representatives jointly did diversity training funded by the Primary Care Trust in January. We have blind and hard of hearing members, so we are learning how to ensure their needs are met in our meetings. Experimenting with recording our newsletter on to tape. Trying to find a better induction loop system for the meeting room at the surgery.
Help other surgeries developing participation groups - keep in touch with new group at the Brocklebank Health Centre; making link with the new Putney Primary Care Centre user group; shared learning with Open Door Surgery in Boundaries Road; joined National Association for Patient Participation
Develop ourselves and share meeting roles - rotate chairing and minute taking; share out the work for organising meetings and educational sessions and distributing newsletters and minutes. Thanks to everyone who volunteers to help. Several BPSLG members now on Patient and Public Involvement Forum for Wandsworth.

Notable achievements

BPSLG won the 2002 Patient Participation Award of the Royal College of General Practitioners. We used the prize money to fund one of our strategic objectives to create a practice-based exercise class. The Committee decided to establish an in-house yoga class and with the PCT's help we recruited a specialist yoga teacher. This service ran very successfully from May 2003 to spring 2004 and provided services for three groups of patients referred by practice staff to this class in order to obtain both physical and psycho-social benefits. We had media coverage in the Daily Telegraph and on London Tonight television. We hope the PCT will help us evaluate this initiative so the learning can benefit other practices.

We have evaluated our experience as BPSLG members and identified the contribution which participation makes to us as individuals, to our surgery and to the wider NHS in Wandsworth. A copy of that evaluation will be posted on this website in the near future.

The future...

Wandsworth PCT stopped its financial support for BPSLG after April 2004. This is a retrograde step for our PCT, especially as PCTs in other parts of the country actively support groups such as ours in their practices. Despite this, we are determined that BPSLG will continue and we are exploring alternative means of funding our activities. This includes working with our practice to identify resources from the new GP contract's Quality and Outcomes Framework which could be used to support ongoing patient participation purposes. More information about that and our search for alternative resources will be posted here in the future.

In the meantime, the best way for other patients of the surgery to show their support for BPSLG is to get involved with it. Come to a committee meeting (see the date on this page) and make your views known. New ideas and new faces are always welcome!