PPG Chair Meeting -      Minutes of the Meeting – 9th November 2016
Members Present:	Ross Harrison, Janis Johnson, Shelley Brooker, Amanda Hulme, Peter Capper, Geoffrey & Rita Cotton, Patricia & Stuart Green, Brenda Wooliscroft and Mary Snape
Apologies from:	Donald Adam, Ernie Hulme, Cressida Minister and Beverley Thomas		
Introductions
Introductions made by all members
Conflict of Interest
None Raised
Staff Information
Leaflets given to all members of the group listing Staff members and their job roles within the practice.  Shelley also spoke of Dr Arepalli and Dr Maheepathi and gave out general information regarding their skills and also explained Dr Maheepathi  is the senior partner.
Extension & Refurbishment
All members of the group were given a list of issues that the staff had to put up with whilst the extension was going on and it went on 6 months longer than anticipated.  There are still snags that have got to be sorted out.
Phone Line Issues
Initially there were some issues with the phone lines and patient were held in a queue and then were being cut off.  This has now been resolved the system has been reset and sorted and there were also some issues with British Telecom.  Hopefully all sorted now.
Practice Improvement Update
Service Master Clean – We now have a new firm of cleaners for the surgery.
Back office reception room (old exam room) is going to be sorted very shortly which 2 members of staff will be allocated to, solely for answering all of the incoming calls which will take the pressure off the reception desk and enable staff to talk to patients over the phone in the privacy of the room rather than in the reception.
CCTV – cameras have now been installed inside and outside the surgery and they are of very high quality.
New Member of Staffs – a new member of staff is starting at the surgery from 5th December.  This is an extra member of staff who has been employed to help alleviate the pressure of the volume of calls coming into the surgery.
Merger – Official Opening
The Lord & Lady Mayor came to open the practice on the 3rd of November and also the Sentinel  attended and it was put in the sentinel along with some photographs.  All went very well and the Mayor spoke highly of the practice.
Any Issues since the Merger
The only issue raised was that a number of Dr Chands patients said that they were having trouble with getting online to do prescriptions etc.  Ross explained that they probably need a new pin issuing and any problems he would take their details and sort this for them.
Venue for PPG/Virtual Group
John spoke of maybe some members becoming virtual members and putting their questions across by e-mail rather than attending the actual group due to the number of people that we could accommodate.  It was decided due to the number of PPG attending today we would see how things go as there were not as many has had been expected. Members did not feel a virtual PPG group was the right thing to do at present. 
Any Other Business
None

Next PPG Meeting Wednesday 8th February 2017 12.30pm