£50k funding to set up Dudley patient groups
Funding of £50,000 has been awarded to set up patient groups to represent the views of residents across Dudley during the next two years.
Dudley Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has allocated cash to enable Patient Participation Groups (PPG) which will work to make improvements.
Each group is linked to a GP practice in the borough and members work alongside health staff to provide a patient perspective on the healthcare services available in the community.
A budget of up to £1,000 for each PPG has been made available to enable them to be set up, encourage the involvement of new patients and work to improve the health and well-being of patients.
The funding has been made available through the PPG Purse Grant Programme.
A number of groups have already planned health events, tea parties and open days for their practice.
One of the first to hold an event is Three Villages Medical Practice in Stourbridge, which is hosting a tea party this week to encourage more patients to join in and to get in touch with patients who are socially isolated. This is followed by The Ridgeway Surgery, Sedgley who are planning a health event for patients in June.
PPGs from different practices can also work collaboratively to host joint events and activities in which case their individual budgets can be pooled together for larger projects.
Cicely Thomas, chairman of The Ridgeway Surgery PPG, said: "We are so pleased that funding has been made available. We are really excited at the opportunity to make a difference to our local community and encourage more people to join our PPG and have a voice."
There is no closing date to apply for funding.
To ensure the money is ring-fenced, Dudley CVS will be holding the funds and administering the PPG purse programme over the next two years.
For more information about the PPG Purse Grant Programme, call either Helen Codd on 01384 321719 or Kate Green, Dudley CVS on 01384 573381.
The news comes after GPs in Dudley were handed more power to manage the borough's £400 million health care budget.
They will work with NHS England to decide how the money is spent and buy patient services such as hospital care and physiotherapy.
Dudley Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) was given the green light to take over responsibility for co-commissioning the majority of GP services from this month. It was among some of the first organisations in the country to be given the go-ahead by NHS England.
