Some constitution changes, election of chair and officers, report on mental health courses in the community, discussion on Health and Well-Being Strategy

The logo that you see at the top left of this page was created here in South Reading to give an instant characterisation to our web pages. We hope to run a competition for a more appealing figurative logo in the near future but for the mean time SRPV is us.

The South Reading Patient Voice will meet on Wednesday, 26th September from 6pm to 7:30pm at the University Health Centre, Northcourt Avenue. There is a busy agenda, with the election of a chair, as Tom Lake's six-month term comes to an end, a talk on community mental health work in East Reading and a discussion with Dr Rosemary Croft, the South Reading Commissioning Group's representative on the Reading Borough Health and Well-Being Board, on the strategy and priorities which are suggested by the latest review of health and social care in South Reading, the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment.

If you are a patient at of the GP practices in the South Reading area you are welcome to attend. 
If this is your first attendance please contact Andrew Price either by email or by telephone on 0118 982 2836 (Mondays, Tuesdays or Thursdays) or 0118 921 3838 (Wednesdays and Fridays)

22 August 2012 

 

South Reading Patient Voice (SRPV) needs to hear from and represent as many South Reading residents as possible. A web site will be one of the ways of reaching many people. Two regular attendees of the SRPV monthly meeting, Tom Lake and Jake Roberts, have started work on a suitable web site. It will feature details of the organisation, a full archive of agendas, minutes and papers from the monthly meetings, a section on the practices and the South Reading NHS Commissioning Group. There will be ways for readers to send in information and comment and a section for debates.

Every year the NHS commissions the reputable pollster IPSOS-MORI to conduct a survey of patient experience at GP surgeries throughout England. There are about 50 questions in the survey and the pollsters try to get a good number of people at each surgery to complete the survey. We now have results for many years.

The problem lies in how to interpret the results. If 90% of patients surveyed think that their surgery is good or very good - is that a good result. Put another way if 10% of patients say their survey is not good - is that good enough.

In the attached paper our Data Officer Francis Brown argues that comparing each surgery with the full range of others, by ranking all surgeries, can give each an idea of how well they are really perceived by their patients.

Our BOB (Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West) Integrated Care System board prepares a general quality and performance report for each board meeting (roughly every two months). Please see the latest report below.

• Help with anxiety and depression. Talking Therapies from Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foudnation Trust. Please click here to find out more. There is a self-referral form available but you can also be referred by your GP (doctor). This service is for people aged 17+. Younger children can be referred by their doctor. There is also a free counselling service for those from 7 to 25 provided by charity No5. Please click here to find out more about this service.
• Physiotherapy. You can refer yourself to primary care Physiotherapy services in Berkshire. These are provided (free of charge) by private group BWELL commissioned by the NHS. Please click here to find out more. You should see a panel labelled self-referral form pop up in the corner of your screen.
• Military veterans seeking support in Mental Health and Wellbeing from Berkshire Healthcare's Op Courage service can refer themselves or be referred by a family member, charitable organisation or their GP on phone number 0300 365 2000 (press option 4) or by email at

• If you have a home nursing need you can refer yourself to the Berkshire Healthcare (NHS) community nursing team. The triage team is available to consider your needs at phone number 0300365 3000 or by email at ReadingCommunityNursingTriage@berkshire.nhs.uk between 8.30am and 4pm Monday to Driday and by calling 111 at other times. See for more about the service. Please see below for a leaflet describing the service and who is eligible.

• Serial health clinics for contraception and sensually transmitted disrase problems are at the Royal Berkshire Hospital's Florey Clinic or with your GP. You can make an appointment at the Florey Clinic by clicking here.

Please see this NHS website page for details on waiting lists at the Royal Berkshire Hospital.

Reading Patient Voice Group exists to foster better health and wellbeing through patient engagement with the NHS and other services in our town. We meet regularly to hear about healthcare and to discuss arrangements for it. We encourage involvement with Patient Participation Groups at GP surgeries and other forms of patient engagement with healthcare providers.

Reading Patient Voice Group membership is open to adults living in Reading Borough or registered with a GP surgery in Reading Borough. We also welcome guests to our activities from further afield. Most of our meetings are held as hybrid, that is both in person and online to make it easy for people in different circumstances to attend.

The NHS is a complex organisation and to have any influence or make any change requires some knowledge of its organisation. We aim to spread knowledge of how to engage with it.

Reading Patient Voice Group was originally South Reading Patient Voice when South Reading healthcare was governed by a separate Clinical Commissioning Group, South Reading CCG. It was started by the CCG to provide patient engagement in the probationary year of that CCG as coverage of surgeries by effective Patient Participation Groups was far from complete. It became independent when the NHS was no longer able to find its activities.

The current constitution of the Reading Patient Voice Group (formerly South Reading Patient Voice) was adopted at the AGM of 22nd November 2023.

It is attached below.