The Friends of Amersham Health Centre (our Patient Participation Group) is the way in which the patient’s voice is heard by the Practice.
If you would be interested in joining us or learning more about us, please contact fahcmembership@gmail.com
Friends of Amersham Health Centre
The Friends of Amersham Health Centre is primarily a support network for the patients and for the Practice. The Friends is run by a committee whose aim is to keep both the patients better informed of relevant practice and health news, and to report patient needs and concerns back to the practice for them to make improvements where possible. The committee of 8 members meets monthly.
The Committee would benefit from additional members who are willing and able to make a contribution in two key areas: the use of current IT opportunities and Communication to Patients (this is a wide subject involving e.g. newsletters, the use of the OH Display, posters, electronic messages).
PPG committee
Daphne Lally, Chair
Daphne came to live in Amersham in 1973 and worked as primary school teacher in Amersham, High Wycombe and Hemel Hempstead for 35 years, 10 of those as a headteacher. She retired in 2008. Since then Daphne has worked as a volunteer at a day centre for early stage dementia, run a Neighbourhood Watch Group and joined the AHC Patient Participation Group.
Paul Morris, Secretary
Paul took up the position of Secretary in 2017. His responsibilities include preparing the schedule of committee meetings and preparing minutes of meetings include the AGM and Open Talks, managing the database of members, sending out regular emails to all members and managing the membership mailbox.
Peter Harper, F.C.A. Treasurer
Peter is responsible for keeping the financial affairs of the Friends in good order and maintaining its status as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. His working career included directorships of Hanson Plc, John Laing and Lonmin. In retirement he has been chairman of Workaid and Laing Family Trust.
Patrick Clarke
Patrick Clarke, Fellow of the British Computer Society. Born1942. Retired as V.P. of IT architecture and strategy with Smithkline Beecham in 2001. Chaired the Friends of Amersham Health Centre for 5 years. Married with two children and four grown up grandchildren. Interests include family, tennis, golf and bridge.
Mark Dunscombe
Mark is married and moved to Amersham with his young family 13 years ago from London. His two children are now teenagers, and all are patients of the Health Centre. He recently retired from a career in IT and wants to help the Health Centre better serve its patients.
Judith Jones
Judith is an Enterprise Architect and a major contributor to world leading standards adopted by the NHS. Judith and her family have been patients at the Health Centre for 42 years and have received fantastic support through the traumas life brings.
Judith is taking on the Secretary role in July.
Lesley Mathieson
Lesley is a retired specialist ENT speech and language therapist, author and university lecturer, working in the NHS for over 30 years and in private practice. She joined the FAHC committee over 10 years ago, is a member of the communications subcommittee and a patient of AHC since its inception.
Vivienne Pozo
Vivienne is retired and moved to Amersham from Bath in 2016. Her early career was in haematology, and she has served as an NHS governor. She joined the FAHC committee 5 years ago, is on the communications subcommittee and has an interest in access issues for deaf and hard of hearing people.
Mission Statement
Role and Responsibilities of The Friends of Amersham Health Centre (Amersham Health Centre PPG)
The role of the Friends of Amersham Health Centre is primarily to support the patients and, secondarily, to support the Practice. Initially, our main objective will be to establish a network so that we can communicate with and receive feedback from patients in order to:
- keep patients better informed about the Practice
- keep the Practice better informed about patient needs and improvement opportunities
We will communicate with the patients via a combination of social media, newsletters, leaflets, and health events.
We will provide feedback to the Practice via our meetings and through the provision of patient surveys.
When needed, we will aim to further support the Practice by, for example, seeking volunteers to help run flu clinics.
These activities are likely to require some fundraising and networking with other healthcare support groups in the area.
The Friends will be run by a Committee, with each member of the Committee taking on a specific individual responsibility.
In addition to the Committee, there will be a wider PPG community. This wider community will be invited to bi-annual meetings to be updated on the work undertaken by the Committee, and to raise any further issues for action and/or discussion.
The personnel from medical and administrative functions of the Practice will also be invited to the bi-annual meetings.
All other patients within the network will be considered to be Friends, to be communicated with on a regular basis, and to be asked to contribute to the success of the Practice via occasional surveys and voluntary support.