A NEW initiative is building bridges between GPs, nurses and patients.
Ten staff and patients at Swanlow Surgery in Swan-low Lane, Winsford, have joined a patients' panel, designed to pass suggestions and information between the centre's staff and patients.
Panel secretary Cathy Gilbert explained: 'We have worked with the Central Cheshire Primary Care Trust to set up this group. We are here to support the practice with advice and closer contact between the surgery and the people of Winsford.'
Ms Gilbert, who is both an employee and patient at the surgery, attended a PCT meeting in March as an introduction to the concept of the patients' panel. She said: 'There were people there from different surgeries, exchanging information about how the panels work and the best way to set them up. I then went to a Patients' Panel Conference in April, where I met other panel leaders and gathered information on how the panel should work.'
The Patients' Panel concept is relatively new in the North
West, but is well established in other parts of England.
It comprises 10 people chosen by the surgery and is chaired by former mayor Don Beckett.
Ms Gilbert said: 'We advertised for members and aimed to put together a panel that represented the whole local community. We have eight patients, a GP and a health visitor and we discuss patients' suggestions, delivered via the surgery's suggestion box, and have talks from GPs who are not on the panel.'
One upcoming project the panel is focusing on is the surgery's forthcoming move to the £5m state of the art Winsford super-surgery on Dene Drive.
Ms Gilbert said: 'We move next year, so we are taking on patients' views and requests about that. It has also meant we can reach out to another area of the community, as we have been speaking to schools about whether we can put pupils' artwork up in the waiting room.
'It's a way of building the surgery's connection with the community and giving people the power to make suggestions about how we run, so that our GPs can use patients' opinions when looking at things like our appointment systems and our overall development plan.'
