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Health Service Forum South East
Minutes of a regular meeting of the Health Service Forum S.E. held in the Larkfield Centre on Tues 10 April 2007
Contents
Public Meeting of the 5 April 2007 in the Couper Institute:
Royal Alexandra Hospital and Inverclyde Hospital:
Welcome
Margaret Hinds welcomed everyone to the meeting.
Apologies
Aileen Fyfe, Pat Lally, Alastair Glen, Alva Caldwell, Mary McClelland, Catherine Milne, Eric Canning and Mary Hamilton
Minutes
The adoption was proposed by Dorothy Walls and seconded by James Sandeman.
Correspondence IN
a)
From Sir John Arbuthnott re the new children’s hospital at the SGH. We still cannot understand why £100m is insufficient cash to provide a replacement building for the existing Yorkhill. We remain extremely concerned about the disruption of the links between the Queen Mum’s and Yorkhill that will occur during the building and relocation period.
b)
From Patricia Ruddy of the Scottish Executive Health Department re the development of an IT system and in particular the confidentiality of electronic health records. We are advised that ‘the work on GP IT is at a very early stage i.e. a long way before any firm decisions would be taken’. We also received a copy of the NHS Scotland Code of Practice on Protecting Patient Confidentiality dated 2003 – presumably the latest information.
Finally, we are advised that they ‘have no plans to adopt the NHS England IT development’.
Considering the enormous cost of developing an IT system for the NHS (already England has spent £12 million), it seems unbelievable that Scotland would not take advantage of work already done.
Treasurer’s report:
Dan MacPhail reported a balance of £2019.00 with expenses outstanding for the public meetings.
Public Meeting of the 5 April 2007 in the Couper Institute:
Dr Robert Cumming chaired the meeting and introduced candidates representing the majority of political parties. The speakers were Davena Rankin (Cons), Rosemary Hewitt (Greens), Chris Young (Lib Dems), James Dornan (Scot Nats), Pat Lally (Senior Citzs), Carolyn Leckie (SSP), David Smith (Independent).
Charlie Gordon, the Labour Party candidate for the Cathcart constituency, did not attend. Other parties sent an alternative spokesperson to represent their views. The Labour Party did not.
The questions from the floor were wide ranging and varied and allowed the speakers to demonstrate their individual grasp of health issues. The majority of the parties supported the Forum’s stance that a hospital with
A & E and in-patient beds is needed for the people of south east Glasgow not a stand alone ACAD.
Royal Alexandra Hospital and Inverclyde Hospital:
As you will be aware the Scottish Executive Health Minister, Andy Kerr, announced that following a public consultation it has been decided to reverse the original decision taken in 2004 by the Argyll & Clyde Health Board to centralize services at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley. Greater Glasgow & Clyde Health Board has decided to retain the majority of acute services including the A&E dept. at Inverclyde Royal Hospital
In the December 2006 consultation document GG & C Health Board states on page 4-
‘There are a number of pressures on hospital services in Scotland……..The strategy we propose in this document is based in the belief that for the Royal Alexandra and Inverclyde Royal Hospitals we will be able to find ways to meet these pressures and that meeting them will allow us to sustain the overwhelming majority of services locally.’
‘A range of principles underpinned the review –
Local services will be maintained locally where safe and sustainable
Deprivation and its effects will be considered as part of the strategy
Distance and time to access hospital services will be considered
A care pathway approach to the planning of services working across the acute and community settings will be considered.’
We are convinced that the right decision has been made for the health of the Inverclyde patients. Our contention is that if GG & C Health Board can find ways to meet the pressures at Inverclyde surely the Board can address ways of overcoming pressures at the Victoria for the people of south east Glasgow? We ask the Health Board to apply the same set of principles to the hospital provision on the south of Glasgow. The present decisions mean that there will be two major hospitals within 6 miles of one another, the Southern General and the Royal Alexandra, leaving a virtual hospital desert in the south east for in-patients and A & E.
Date of Next Meeting
Please note there will be a Hustings meeting at 7.30 p.m. on the 24 April in Mount Florida Church, 1123 Cathcart Road organized by the local churches.
Date of next regular meeting and AGM 8 May 2007 at 7.30 p.m.
