The National Health Service (Personal Medical Services Agreements) Regulations 2015

Patient participation

20.—(1) A contractor which provides essential services must establish and maintain a group known as a “Patient Participation Group” comprising 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 in accordance with the provisions of any directions about enhanced services which were given by the Secretary of State under section 98A of the Act(1) (exercise of functions) 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, about the services delivered by the contractor; and

(b) review any feedback received about the services delivered by the contractor, whether in accordance with 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.

(1)

Section 98A was inserted by section 49(1) of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 (c.7).