Here are some of the objectives of the group along with some of our recent activities. This list is not exhaustive but will give you some idea of the work that we do.

• Campaigning on local health issues and acting as advocates for the patient body. For example, there is a concern about the lack of access to local Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. The PV group has been investigating the situation and have been lobbying the local NHS and our MP to try and obtain an improvement to this service.
• Promoting awareness of healthcare issues such as dementia and cancer diagnosis. In both cases the PV group have worked with named individuals in the Practice who are Champions for these diseases.
• Providing information to patients to support the self-management of their health. This might be in the form of leaflets or information published in the Practice newsletter. Recently we have provided information on resources to support patients who have a new diagnosis of cancer and we are currently working on information on diabetes.
• Encouraging a healthy lifestyle among the community. Most recently the group has produced a leaflet promoting the various health-supporting activities available including Hertfordshire health walks and Parkruns.
• Working with the practice team to improve the provision of healthcare services to the patient body. We provide a patient perspective on such matters as: the design of the Practice website and the content of the newsletter.
• Supporting all people that use the practice. For example, we are currently concerned that the Carers register may not fully represent all Carers within our practice. We are therefore looking at ways to improve how this information can be gathered and maintained so that all carers can access additional services such as health checks..