Coverage and quality of patient participation groups: a mixed-methods analysis of Care Quality Commission reports

Emily Jane Boam; Luke Munford; Claire Planner; Bruno Rushforth; Jessica Drinkwater

doi:10.3399/BJGP.2025.0088

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Patient participation groups
Miles Mack

Published on: 30 March 2026

Published on: (30 March 2026)
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Patient participation groups
Miles Mack, GP Partner, Dingwall Medical Group
I was interested to read the article on patient participation groups and the apparent struggle to engage and sustain these groups. We had similar issues in our practice in the Highlands of Scotland. Our practice covers the market town of Dingwall and various surrounding villages from the East coast to the watershed in the West. It is rural but with significant pockets of deprivation.

We decided we needed a patient participation group as we wished to seek feedback on our Values-Based Governance approach.¹ We used the novel approach of reaching out to all 11 community councils that cover our practice, asking them to send one representative. We have found this has had significant advantages: 1. Participants attend as elected representatives of their community rather than patients with a single perspective, 2. We can tie into their social media and other communications 3. The meetings are opportunities for the Community Councils to consider how they can influence health in their communities. Examples include community travel initiatives and championing the adoption of the Power of Attorney for the population. 4. We are able to have a two-way communication with our wider communities that would not otherwise be possible. 5. We seek feedback in case our actions are diverging from our stated practice values statement.

I would strongly encourage other practices to follow this approach, as the meetings are informative and productive, and have led to better...
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I was interested to read the article on patient participation groups and the apparent struggle to engage and sustain these groups. We had similar issues in our practice in the Highlands of Scotland. Our practice covers the market town of Dingwall and various surrounding villages from the East coast to the watershed in the West. It is rural but with significant pockets of deprivation.

We decided we needed a patient participation group as we wished to seek feedback on our Values-Based Governance approach.¹ We used the novel approach of reaching out to all 11 community councils that cover our practice, asking them to send one representative. We have found this has had significant advantages: 1. Participants attend as elected representatives of their community rather than patients with a single perspective, 2. We can tie into their social media and other communications 3. The meetings are opportunities for the Community Councils to consider how they can influence health in their communities. Examples include community travel initiatives and championing the adoption of the Power of Attorney for the population. 4. We are able to have a two-way communication with our wider communities that would not otherwise be possible. 5. We seek feedback in case our actions are diverging from our stated practice values statement.

I would strongly encourage other practices to follow this approach, as the meetings are informative and productive, and have led to better cooperation and relationships between the practice and community councils, and also between individual councils.

Reference

1. milesmack (2025) Values-based governance in general practice. https://milesmack.wordpress.com/2025/12/11/values-based-governance-in-general-practice/.
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Competing Interests: None declared.