• To offer opinions in a constructive manner and to put forward ideas on behalf of other patients.
• To improve the provision of health care.
• To improve communication between surgery, patients and the wider community about matters concerning the surgery and health in general.
• To provide assistance in development of new services.
• To encourage a spirit of self help and support amongst patients to improve their health and social care.

The group would like to contact patients on occasion by email and/or text so that they can obtain the views of the widest group of patients possible. We would like to obtain your email address and mobile phone number to do this. Please complete the Patient Contact Form to provide your consent for this.

Dear PPG members,

It has been some time since we last communicated with you, and so much has happened in the interim. The most concerning event of course has been the arrival of Covid 19, and this has absorbed a great deal of our time with planning how best to consult with and care for patients, sourcing PPE, making the surgery safe for staff and especially those patients who need to see us face to face, developing systems for total telephone triage of all patients needing attention, setting up e-consulting and video consultation (which we are due to have access to soon). We are immensely grateful to patients, friends, local companies and others who have so kindly donated PPE to us, and in some cases actually made masks and visors for us. Without this sort of amazing support, we would have found it much more difficult, as many suppliers of these products had quite simply run out of stock.

We have several staff who, because of medical conditions are shielding and required to work from home. We have had to reduce our opening times at Pendeen temporarily, to two sessions per week, due to staff shortage. (And also most of our consultations take place by phone or email anyway currently).

We have had some other major events taking place over the past few months as follows:

• The most notable of these is the result of our CQC inspection on 4^th December 2019, which saw us being taken out of special measures and reinstated as `Good` in all five categories. This was the best Christmas present we as a team could have had and we are so grateful to every single member of staff who worked so very hard towards achieving this wonderful goal. We had been advised that it would take at least a year to turn ourselves around, so we were immensely proud to do so in just 6 months.
• We were delighted to finally resolve the matter of the Pendeen surgery premises. A private buyer has purchased the property, with whom we have signed a long-term lease, ensuring continuity of care for the community. We are finally able to get on with some long overdue renovations (electrics, heating, etc). This we know is a great relief to the Pendeen community.
• Our new website went live in December, and we are delighted with its appearance and flexibility. It provides lots of health advice as well as plenty of information about the surgery and the services we offer.
• Sadly, Jim Payne, our Practice Manager retired in December.  We wish him all very good health and happiness in his retirement.
• Jackie Brown, Practice Manager at Marazion Surgery is currently supporting us one day per week along with our deputy and assistant managers.
• We appointed two new members of staff in January: Claire Tuckett Receptionist, and Amanda Jeffery, Practice nurse. We have more recently appointed two further new receptionists; Lee Kenny and Laura Charlesworth. All have very quickly slotted into place and are now firm members of the team.
• We have interviewed and appointed our new Practice Manager who is moving down from up country and will join us in August.
• We have appointed a new GP, who is moving from the north of England, and who joins us also in July, depending on the Covid situation. We greatly look forward to his arrival.
• With regard to our Patient Participation Group; we have been trying to recruit new members both at the Morrab and the Pendeen site for some time. This has not been very successful so far, and we are keen when Coronavirus allows, to try and address this again. This new website gives us an opportunity to have much more interaction with the PPG, and this may be a more practical option for some members rather than attending face to face meetings. This summarises where we are for now. If you have any questions or queries, please do contact us at  morrabenquiries@nhs.netWishing you all very best of good health and keep safe in these challenging times.

Kind regards,  

Drs Neil Armstrong, Stewart Rutherfurd and Jane Martin