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Primary Care Network’s PPI group celebrates 10-years and aims for ‘bigger and better’ achievements
The NHS Research Scotland (NRS) Primary Care Network proudly celebrated 10 years of support from their Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) Group with a special gathering last week – and immediately pledged to go ‘bigger and better’.
The milestone event to mark the group’s decade of achievements took place on Friday 24 April at the University of Glasgow’s Clarice Pears Building.
The hybrid event was attended by PPI group members, past and present, along with friends, family, and invited professionals.
The Network welcomed 20 in-person attendees and four online who heard short talks from researchers and PPI members reflecting on the work of the group and its impact on research.
Event chair Tracy Ibbotson, NRS Primary Care Patient and Public Involvement Lead, said: “The message we received from the event was clear – that all involved in the group greatly enjoy providing the patient perspective to researchers and are looking forward to bigger and better PPI.
“That means more diversity and further inspiring feedback from researchers about the outcomes of their studies. One of our longest-standing members, Geoff Mohamed noted, ‘Feedback is a two-way communication; researcher to public, public to researcher’.
“Our attendees were also impressed by the figures which were highlighted including a total of 40 meetings and 60 studies reviewed since 2016.
“The gathering was a great opportunity to not only bring people together, but to celebrate the group’s many achievements and thank them all for their contributions over the years which have undoubtedly helped to make a difference.
“As one member Bill Rogerson put it, we are ‘people with one common interest – to improve health care for everyone, using the life experience of the group to speed up the process of implementation of approved care.’ That’s a great encapsulation of the importance of patient voices and I’m pleased we celebrated it.”
Tracy says that “members have played an active and enthusiastic role” in the group’s development by planning and participating in seminars with researchers and patients; collaborating with university colleagues in presenting workshops for stakeholders; and conducting four PPI group meetings each year to offer vital opinions to health researchers on their grant applications.
Interested parties – including patients, carers, members of the public, and researchers from across Scotland – are invited to learn more about the PPI group and get involved to “keep health research activity focused on what will really benefit patients, carers and the public using frontline services”.
Over the last decade, some members have been PPI co-applicants on funded research and programmes to enhance the voice of underrepresented people, while two members joined the Chief Scientist Office (CSO) Public Engagement Group.
Publication date: 1st May 2026
