S T A T U T O R Y  I N S T R U M E N T S 2015 No. 196 NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE, ENGLAND.

The National Health Service (General Medical Services Contracts and Personal Medical Services Agreements) (Amendment) Regulations 2015

All GP practices contractually required to establish and maintain a PPG.

Insertion of new regulation 24A into the GMS Contracts Regulations

Patient participation

24A.—(1) The contractor must establish and maintain a group known as a “Patient Participation Group” comprising of some of its registered patients for the purposes of—

(a) obtaining the views of patients who have attended the contractor’s practice about the services delivered by the contractor; and

(b) enabling the contractor to obtain feedback from its registered patients about those services.

(2) The contractor is not required to establish a Patient Participation Group if such a group has already been established by the contractor pursuant to any directions about enhanced services which were given by the Secretary of State under section 98A of the 2006 Act(e) before 1st April 2015.

(3) The contractor must make reasonable efforts during each financial year to review the membership of its Patient Participation Group in order to ensure that the Group is representative of its registered patients.

(4) The contractor must—

(a) engage with its Patient Participation Group, at such frequent intervals throughout each financial year as the contractor must agree with that group, with a view to

obtaining feedback from the contractor’s registered patients, in an appropriate and accessible manner which is designed to encourage patient participation, about the

services delivered by the contractor; and

(b) review any feedback received about the services delivered by the contractor, whether pursuant to sub-paragraph (a) or otherwise, with its Patient Participation

Group with a view to agreeing with that group the improvements (if any) which are to be made to those services.

(5) The contractor must make reasonable efforts to implement such improvements to the services delivered by the contractor as are agreed between the contractor and its Patient Participation Group.

(6) In this regulation “financial year” means the 12 month period beginning on 1st April each year and ending on 31st March the following year.”.