Patient Participation Group

Our Patient Participation Group (PPG) meets to provide a forum for discussion about the practice.

Latest PPG Minutes

Tuesday 5th May 2026 at 5:30pm to 7pm

• Chair: Renee Bernstein (RB) – PPG Member
• Members Present: Charles Boucher (CB), Jill Ackroyd (JA), Jane Enright Moony (JEM), Sara Dibb (SD), Dr. Ben Bromilow (BB), Dr. Ehsan Alkizwini (EA), Karen McCormack (KM)
• Apologies: David Richards (DR), Elizabeth Horridge (EH), Neil Fletcher (NF), Jane Shaw (JS), Leon Douglas (LD), Mark Keeler (MK), Anna Field (AF), Dr. Birgit Curtis (BC)

Introduction and welcome

The Chair welcomed members.

Minutes from the meeting held on 24th Feburary 2026 were approved as an accurate record with no amendments.

Matters arising from last meeting

Social Prescribers Health Walk

The Social Prescribers walk will hopefully be restarting towards the end of May 2026. This was paused at the beginning of the year, due to the low uptake over the winter months. PPG volunteers are also welcome to attend. The art class on Monday afternoon is continuing and has been extremely popular with attendees.

Local councillor

Following the elections that are taking place later this week on the 7th of May 2026, a question was put to the group as to whether they would like to extend an invitation to the newly elected councilor for the local area to come to WHMC to attend a meeting. The group unanimously agreed to invite the newly elected local Councillor to attend a future meeting. We recognize that the results of the election will not be ready for the open meeting on the 12th of May. It is hoped that we can invite the Councillor to attend the December 2026 meeting.

Exploration of the achievements of the other patient participation groups

CB and JEM attended the Wider Patient Group meeting in Enfield last year, and felt the meeting focused primarily on how PPGs could support practices with elements of contractual work and service delivery. CB felt that after listening to some of the other groups that the group had been performing very positively. The main purpose of the PPG is to be the link between patients and practice voicing any concerns or feedback they receive to improve the patient experience.

Actions:

• CB to look at the work done by other PPG groups, as well as the work done at the Kings Fund and report back.
• JEM to help and look at the work done by Healthwatch and report back.

PCN, ICB merger, neighbourhood working and surgery updates (BB/EA)

Primary Care Network (PCN)

West Hampstead Medical Centre remains in a Primary Care Network (PCN) with Abbey Medical Centre.

Integrated Care Board (ICB) Merger

North Central London and North West London ICBs merged on the 1st of April 2026 to form NHS West and North London ICB, covering 13 boroughs and approximately 4.5 million residents.

Integration challenges across health, council and social care systems are expected, including potential budget reductions. The situation remains under review as the organisational changes continue. There is still a lot of reorganisation to be done including ongoing role reallocation and redundancies. EA will remain as the ICB digital lead until June 2026 when his role will be reevaluated.

British Medical Association (BMA) Collective Action

No update or change.

Neighbourhood Working

No projects identified yet, but any future neighbourhood alignment would sit within the West locality, alongside Cholmley Gardens Surgery and Fortune Green Practice. Neighbourhood working is hoped to address challenges associated with geographically large PCNs.

Practice Operations, Core Contract, Catchment Area, DES, LCS

Dr Tibb has returned to work from her maternity leave, and Dr Rachel Toner will also be returning from her maternity leave in August 2026. A patient has donated a defibrillator to the surgery for use in the local community, surrounding roads and neighbourhood as well as the patients that attend the surgery.

UCLH are now sharing their patients clinical documents via the LCR (London care Record). Over the last 10 years they have been able to see other providers clinical letters but not their own. This will be beneficial going forward.

• GP Contract - no changes between now and September 2026
• Catchment Area - no change
• LCS - there are no major changes to the locally commissioned services.

Actions:

• Keep Primary Care Network, ICB, Neighbourhood & Surgery Updated as standing agenda items for the next meeting.
• Partners to update PPG members via email if anything changes before the next PPG meeting. (Sept 2026)

Hospital Communication and Patient Queries

Patients are often contacting the surgery requesting copies of test results ordered by hospital consultants. As the practice is not the requesting clinician, these results are not always automatically shared with us. The practice may also be unable to interpret the results or advise patients appropriately without knowing the consultant’s management plan or intended follow-up. It was acknowledged that this can be difficult for patients, however they are still advised to contact the hospital department directly.

Patients reported ongoing difficulties contacting hospital departments, including calls going to voicemail and delays in responses to enquiries. The practice does not have direct departmental contact numbers and often has access only to the same contact routes as patients. GPs can escalate concerns via the GP Liaison Team or through quality and safety alerts where appropriate. Patients can also contact PALS (Patient Advice and Liaison Service) for service-specific concerns. CB commented that he had personally found PALS helpful when attending a department in person.

The group discussed whether the PPG could compile a directory of hospital extension numbers that patients had found useful. While members felt this could be beneficial, it was agreed that this would be more appropriately managed at ICB level and shared across practices in a format similar to a Directory of Services (DOS), rather than maintained locally by the surgery. It was also noted that hospital contact numbers frequently change and can quickly become outdated. The importance of signposting patients to PALS was strongly highlighted.

Actions:

• EA to create a template message for patients following a referral, including relevant PALS information.
• EA to highlight the PALS service at the Open Meeting next week and in the next practice newsletter (May 2026).

Camden patient and public engagement group (RB)

LD and DR are representatives of the practice and attend regular CPPEG meeting. The last meeting scheduled for 9th March 2026 was deferred to 11th May 2026 but has not yet been confirmed.

Action:

• DR to update at the next PPG meeting.

Neighbourhoods

BB and EA have attended some of the recent neighbourhood meetings, some of which have focused on social care, social isolation and the impact of isolation on patients’ overall health and wellbeing. A major issue identified was the link between isolation, depression, and anxiety.

JEM mentioned that she knew of a local filmmaker that produced a powerful short film about a woman originally from China who had been living in the UK with limited extended family support nearby, so when she sadly lost her husband, she really struggled with loneliness and isolation. The host site for film is Vimeo.

Local community organisations in the area do have lots of activities and some have a buddy scheme, where someone will come and pick you up and go with you to the event and drop you off which is hugely beneficial.

A key discussion point was the complexity of neighbourhood working due to various challenges such as:

• Different providers operating across different postcode areas
• Challenges around how CNWL aligns with local services
• The need for stronger collaboration and partnership working

There are existing Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs) at Wood Green Community Diagnostic Centre & Finchley Memorial Hospital. There is currently a developing (“pipeline”) plan for new Neighbourhood Health Centres in the area, one centre is planned for the west area (location still unconfirmed) another is planned for Hornsey Hospital. Kentish Town already has a pilot site operating at James Wigg Surgery, due to the availability of suitable space there. WHMC is currently limited by room space to host additional services, but the practice has offered its premises for use by other services when rooms are available.

Actions:

• JEM to share the link/video with KM, to forward to Joe, Partners and PPG, then to discuss how we can use it.
• Add loneliness & memory café group to next agenda
• Add neighbourhood health centres to the next agenda

Virtual PPG (RB)

Discussion on the potential benefits of extending the membership and having a virtual patient group so that we can obtain other patient input and views. Uptake has historically been limited and administration time-consuming. Ideally, we would need to have a really good focus topic to interest them or an incentive/motivation as to what they are interested in doing to draw these patients in.

Action:

To review subject at next meeting following the PPG walkarounds in Reception over the next few months.

Spring newsletter

Update on latest edition, due to be published at the end of May following the Open Meeting. The newsletter is completed apart from the last page, which will be an update on the whole Open Meeting. If anyone has a suggestion for the next edition, please email KM. So far, we have had a suggestion to add info on the NHS app.

Actions:

MK to summarise events of the open meeting for 

Patient participation steering group representation (RB)

We have created a reception sub-group consisting of PPG members - RB, JS, AF & KM.

The objectives of the group are:

1. To talk to other patients in the waiting area, discuss the purpose of the patient group and what they do.
2. 2. To gather feedback or any suggestions they would like shared with the practice team. All feedback given will remain anonymous.
3. To ask whether they would like to join the mailing list to receive non-clinical communications such as the practice newsletter.

We anticipate a broader representation of patient demographics in the waiting room, which may help improve engagement with under-represented ethnic and demographic groups. Initial sessions will be carried out in pairs for support, with volunteers working individually in future if appropriate. SD has also offered to help.

Actions:

• JS to send a copy of the questions that had been compiled in the last subgroup.
• AF and JS first walkaround planned for 19th May 2026 from 4:30pm to 6:30pm. Further dates to be planned.
• RB to Inform SD of the date of the next subgroup meeting as she is happy to help.
• KM to create poster to display in reception informing patients that there will be members of the patient group
• walking around. Also, a crib sheet with the questions from JS, along with a ‘how to guide’, in case they are asked
• specific questions. This will include information about the NHS App Ambassadors (trained Receptionists) & NHS
• App support leaflets that are available to help patients set up the NHS app etc.

Open meeting - Scheduled for Tuesday 12th May 2026

Update on the agenda and advertising campaign to date. Posters have been displayed in the surgery and several local shops in West Hampstead such as Cancer Research, Library, Aqua & Central Pharmacy, Opticians, Barbers, Tesco, Gails as well as Neighbourhood WhatsApp groups. Members and their families have also delivered leaflets to local residents in the area. We have also advertised on the surgery website and patient waiting room screens. Schedule of events is ready, along with agenda and patient feedback form to be handed out on the night. All external speakers confirmed and will be sending PowerPoint presentations prior to the event.

Actions:

• MK and JEM to arrive a bit earlier on the night to help.
• MK to write up summary of event for newsletter.

Proposed future meeting dates and A.O.B.

Future Meeting Dates are planned for Tuesday 8th September 2026 and Tuesday 8th December 2026 (LD to Chair)

Actions:

Standing agenda items for the next meeting to remain - ICB Merger, GP Contract

Add the following as new agenda items:

• Physicians Associates
• Inviting the newly elected local Councillor following the May elections
• Arranging and hosting a community CPR/BLS event at the surgery for patients. BB to speak to HSJ&SE
• Community Defibrillator (promotion and publicity)
• KM to compile a glossary of acronyms used in the meeting minutes to support understanding of the minutes and will distribute this to the group via email.

Summary of actions

• KM to confirm dates of next meeting with LD – confirmed above
• CB/JEM to review other external surgery PPG work and Healthwatch work
• EA to produce a PALS information template to use with referrals & promote PALS at the Open Meeting next week
• JEM to share Vimeo loneliness film with KM to forward to group and GP Partners – JEM emailed
• MK to write up piece on Open Meeting – completed for newsletter.
• KM to finish and publish newsletter by 22 May 2026 – published
• JS/AF to begin reception walkarounds on 19 May 2026 – 1st walkaround completed