Health  Service  Forum  South  East

Minutes of a regular meeting of the Health Service Forum S.E. held on the 8 April 2008 in the Larkfield Centre

Contents

Welcome

Apologies

Minutes

Correspondence

South Monitoring Group

AOCB

Welcome

The Chairman Margaret Hinds welcomed members to the meeting.

Apologies

Apologies were received from Mary Hamilton, Douglas McGregor, Alastair Glen, Eric Canning, Pat Lally

Minutes

The minutes of the 11 March meeting were approved and the adoption proposed by James Sandeman seconded by Alva Caldwell.

There were no matters arising.

Correspondence

1)          We are grateful to Alan Seabourne, Project Officer, for sending us a large scale version of the plans for the new South Acute Hospital. These were sent to Eric Canning for comment.

2)          Strathclyde Passenger Transport sent a copy of parts one and two of the Glasgow Conurbation Public Transport Study carried out by MVA consultants. This has been handed to Prof Douglas McGregor for scrutiny.

3)          David Smith confirmed that he had not heard from the North Middlesex Hospital regarding the report on the success or otherwise of the BeCad.

4)          An e-mail from Alan Seabourne in response to our query on the cost of the pile driving at the new SGH for the new 14 storey adult hospital. The reply was as follows;

“The Board are fully aware of the ground conditions prevailing within the proposed development site at SGH. The Public Sector Comparator (PSC) design has been developed with reference to nine previous ground investigation reports and correspondence with other related bodies such as the Coal Authority.

Construction solutions for many large buildings within the Glasgow conurbation have utilised piled foundations, with ground beams and steel braced frames. Indeed, the new hospitals at Victoria and Stobhill both utilise a piled foundation solution, due to problematic ground conditions on both sites, even although they are both close to localized rock outcrops.

The depth of piles at SGH will be deep, the 30m figure is anticipated as a maximum depth(including rock socket), depths are anticipated to vary across the site with average lengths of 20-25m. The Board's PSC design solution includes the piled foundation solution within its cost plan, this solution accounts for 2.28% of the costs”.

5)          A letter was sent to the Chairman of GG&C Health Board, Andrew Robertson, asking for a meeting. Margaret has received a response and will be seeing him in June.

South Monitoring Group

The South Monitoring Group met on the 14 March as previously reported. Members were taken on a VISUAL tour of the ACAD(New Victoria Hospital) that mentiond IN-PATIENT BEDS. On questioning this statement it was revealed that the IN-PATIENT BEDS were the 60 now reduced to 48 rehabilitation beds which would replace Mansionhouse’s 200 beds for the elderly. The video presentation painted a very attractive, light and airy, Day Clinic. Very useful, very attractive but not a replacement for the Victoria or Mansionhouse. As the presentation was going to be shown all over Glasgow and on the Health Board’s web site, Margaret Hinds stated that, in her opinion, this presentation could be misleading to patients who did not realise that there was NO A&E and NO inpatient beds. This should be made clear at the start of the presentation to ensure patient safety.       Patients requiring a hospital bed on the south side will go to the new south acute hospital at the Southern General site. What are we not clear about is the following; will patients from the South West travel to the ACAD to attend clinics as well as day surgery procedures? It was decided to write to Robert Calderwood to clarify this matter.

AOCB

A member of the Forum contacted Margaret regarding blood samples that were taken at the doctor's surgery. The first sample was of no use to the laboratory because it had not reached the SGH lab soon enough to give an accurate electrolyte reading. The patient was called back to give a further sample. It was decided to write to Jim Crombie, Director of Diagnostic Services. Our e-mail to him asked 'Could you tell us how many times in the past twelve months this same problem has arisen? Is there any way to avoid this happening?' The response by return asked for the patient's name and  that of the GP.  Our reply was that patients are reluctant to be named or to name a doctor because of fear of repercussions.

Our chairman received a letter from the office of the Alasdair Watson, the head of the Strathclyde Passenger Transport. He has agreed to come to our June meeting to update us on the public transport system as it affects those using the Southern General and the Victoria.

Our speaker for the next meeting will be Cathie Cowan, Director of the South East CHCP, accompanied by Una Fingleton who is the public involvement worker. The CHCPs are still in the process of being established and it should be interesting to hear about the work they are doing.

The date of the next meeting is

Tuesday 13 May at 7.30 p.m. in the Larkfield Centre