September 2023

18 Buckden Roundabout September 2023 Village News New Life on The Old West The Huntingdonshire Local Group of the Wildlife Trust invites you to our first indoor meeting of the autumn. This will be held on Wednesday 13 th September at 7.30pm at Brampton Memorial Hall. Our speaker will be Howard Jones and his topic is New Life on The Old West. The Old West River is part of the River Great Ouse starting east of Earith. The countryside around the Old West is an important habitat for rare and threatened species. It is located between the RSPB Ouse Fen reserve, the Ouse Washes to the west and Wicken Fen to the east. It is a stronghold for many threatened species such as water vole, greater water parsnip, turtle dove and lapwing. This is a project that has been led by Howard Jones and he will be delighted to tell us about its value to conservation and the progress that has been made over recent years. Everyone is most welcome to attend. Booking is not neces- sary. The charge is £3.50 and payment is by cash or card. We meet at Brampton Memorial Hall, Thrapston Road, Brampton, PE28 4TB. For more information please contact George (01480 450809 or georgecottam@virginmedia.com) Part of the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire. Registered Charity No: 1000412 Buckden and Little Paxton Surgeries Patient Participation Group (PPG) May I again bring to your attention our Annual General Meeting (A.G.M.), which is scheduled for Tuesday the 19th of September. The timing has been slightly amended, since earlier notifica- tions, and is now due to start at 8 P.M. Further, the venue chosen this year is a new location in Little Paxton, the Hub, situated at 2 Samuel Jones Crescent, Little Paxton, PE19 6QY. Part of our motivation for doing so is an effort to reach out and engage with different demographics in our local communities. Can I encourage you to attend, and in so doing support our local sur- geries and their staff. One of the purposes of the A.G.M. is to elect the Committee for the Patient Participation Group (P.P.G.) for the coming year, and we are always eager to recruit new members to represent the patients in each of the villages that lie within our catch- ment area. If you are thinking of putting your name forward for this role, and require further information, please do not hesi- tate to contact me on the number listed below. The first half of our meeting in September will take the form of a presentation by two of our Partner G.P.s , namely Dr. Nathalie Rodriguez - McCullough and Dr. Mina Rizkallah. Their topic is entitled "Current Challenges facing General Practitioners." Re- calling last year's presentation, which closely mirrored this year's, I remember that it was thoroughly enjoyed and appreci- ated by our audience, and I expect that experience to be re- peated. Certainly there is much to report on, with the NHS en- during another difficult year, which gravely affected primary care. Within the meeting we will hope to to provide also an in - depth report on our P.P.G., so that you may gain an impression of what we have been up to during the past year. I will provide here a brief taster , describing some of our aims and objectives, and our efforts to achieve these. What exactly is a P.P.G. and what is its core purpose? Good question, which we are still seeking to define? Our fundamental aim is to improve local services for local people. Towards this end, we are trying to create a ongoing dialogue between us and the surgeries and their staff, hoping to provide them with important insights into what its patient populations need and want, and enabling them to learn from patient experiences through this partner- ship. An example of this co - operation is witnessed in the crea- tion of the new practice website, to which our committee members have contributed with their feedback. We have also strived to strengthen our profile in the community, and a demonstration of this are the defibrillator training sessions we have been organising in Buckden, in conjunction with Magpas, with us in the process of arranging another session to be held at Buckden Village Hall. And we are now, along with Health- watch, setting up a meeting with the other P.P.G.s in Hunting- donshire, so that we can share good practice and learn from each other. If you wish to hear more of our activities please consider attending our A.G.M. on the 19th of September. Finally, I look forward to meeting some of you on the 19th of September. You will possibly encounter posters advertising our event in locations around the local villages, including the no- ticeboards in the surgeries in Buckden and Little Paxton. Rob Gardiner - Chair of P.P.G. 07900594625