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Health Service Forum South East
Minutes of a regular meeting of Health Service Forum S.E. held in the Larkfield Centre
on Tuesday 8 February 2005 at 7.30 p.m.
These are draft Minutes and await ratification at the next regular meeting of the Forum
Contents
Meeting with Sir John Arbuthnott and Tom Divers
The Scottish Health Campaigns Network
Keeping the Scottish NHS Local
Transport and Access Group Report
Report on Board meeting of 22 February
Welcome
Welcome from the Chair and introduction of Calum Kerr, General Manager of the Scottish Ambulance Service.
Within the last 7 years the ambulance service has become an intrinsic part of the NHS. Since 1999 the money for the ambulance service has come from the Scottish Executive and is ring-fenced. The present budget is £18m. There is no lack of applicants to work in the service.
The highest demand on the service comes from Glasgow. There are 65 ambulances and 73 non-emergency vehicles. Every category ‘A’ ambulance has a paramedic on board. Half of the 280 ambulance staff are paramedics. Defibrillators in all ambulances allow telemetry to coronary care unit. In Lanarkshire community paramedics are based in health centres where patients are assessed and treated along with nurses e.g. diabetic cases and post epileptic fits.
Ambulances will be a key factor in the implementation of the Acute Services Review. There will be 2 A&E departments – one at the Southern General and the other at the Royal. Gartnavel will be a receiving centre for patients sent by a GP. Calum represents the Ambulance Service on the Acute Services Acceleration Team. Already vehicles are deployed in areas identified as likely emergency areas. When asked what to do if a medical emergency arises, the members were advised to phone 999 even if you are unable to describe your problem. There is no plan to station an ambulance at the Victoria ACAD to deal with a potential transfer of a patient requiring treatment in an acute hospital.
The Chair thanked Calum for his presentation and for answering questions.
Apologies
Apologies; Eric Canning, Pat Lally, Alastair Glen
Minutes
Minutes of the 11 January were adopted as correct. There were no matters arising.
Correspondence
Correspondence: IN a) Letter from Andy Kerr Health Minster regarding public access to Board meetings, and the role of the South Monitoring Group. He declined to meet with the Forum due to pressure of work. The Board meetings open to the public are as follows; 22 February, 19 April, 21 June, 26 July, 16 August, 11 October, 20 December.
b) Letter from John Hamilton, Head of GGNHS Board Administration, regarding the removal of the 12 Haemato-oncology beds from the Victoria to the SGH in June 2005. The South Monitoring Group was briefed in December 2003 and Dr Burns reiterated the arrangement in September 2004.
OUT: Letter to Sir John Arbuthnott confirming our understanding of the meeting of the 19 January and listing various action points to be dealt with by Tom Divers.
Treasurers Report
Treasurers Report: The balance in the bank is £1222.87
Health Seminar
Lord Watson hosted A Health Seminar at Hampden on 17 January 2005. The meeting was organised by Niall McGrogan, head of Community Engagement Team, and although the Forum did not receive an official invitation two members were advised that they could attend and Mike Watson apologised to the Health Forum for the omission. The Forum discovered that there were also several Community Councils who were not on the invitation list. The meeting took the form of workshops and it was only possible to attend two of these in the time allotted. The workshop on the new Victoria Hospital or ACAD did not provide any new information. A laptop computer presentation was inappropriate for the numbers attending and the presenter did not appear to have been well briefed on his subject, as some details given by him were inaccurate. The subject of Community Health Partnerships was too complex to grasp in the short time available and much of the detail has still to be resolved. At the end of the session there was no feedback from the workshop groups or leaders. This might have given information to us on workshops we couldn’t attend.
Meeting with Sir John Arbuthnott and Tom Divers
Meeting with Sir John Arbuthnott and Tom Divers 19 January 2005: Margaret Hinds, Pat Lally, Douglas McGregor and Louise Laing (in lieu of Eric Canning) attended a meeting which lasted two hours and covered a range of topics including finances, the ACAD, reduction in the number of Board meetings and loss of beds in the Victoria. We await information from Tom Divers on a) the current architectural plans for the ACAD b) date of a meeting to hear medical opinion on a stand-alone ACAD c) Dates of public ‘Our Health’ meetings, d) date of a conducted, site visit to the SGH to hear about development plans.
The Scottish Health Campaigns Network
The Scottish Health Campaigns Network group met in Perth on Saturday 5 February. Aileen Fyfe attended the meeting on our behalf. It was reported that Prof David Kerr, Chairman of the National Planning Team, was attending a meeting of an invited audience in Dunbartonshire. Others have been meeting with a subcommittee of the Planning Team. The Network has been offered a meeting with Andy Kerr the Health Minister. With respect to NHS 24 there are ongoing bad reports on the delays in the response time and the processing time of each incident. West Dunbartonshire is providing its own cover rather than relying on NHS 24. Two members from each organisation must be nominated before the AGM of the Network in March.
Keeping the Scottish NHS Local
The Forum has produced a new document on the Hospital Strategy for South Glasgow entitled ‘Keeping the Scottish NHS Local’. This has been sent out to as many influential and interested parties as possible and is now available on our web site.
Transport and Access Group Report
Transport and Access Group Report: Professor McGregor reported that at the meeting of the 28 October 2004 ‘ it was agreed that if services are centralised a way will have to be found to disseminate information on travel.’ The Group is employing, for one year, training officers to produce evidence showing how members of certain outlying communities have difficulty with transport into Glasgow Hospitals. The evidence collected on SGH: bus arrived one hour late- no wheelchair access, no timetable in bus shelter, difficult access to bus. On Victoria Inf.: bus shelter totally unsuitable-built wrong way round for protection, bus stops on island, difficulty in crossing road to access hospital. There was a comment that the SPT representative did not always come to meetings. It was agreed that it is essential that someone from SPT should be appointed to attend.
Prof McGregor said he found Greater Glasgow’s web site travel planner to be very inferior to that available for London. The SPT are working on such a system.
Hospital staff willing to travel by public transport will be able to obtain a zone travel card through NHSGG in return for a monthly deduction from their salaries. The annual cost of the zone cards will be approx £2000. Members of staff who are bicycle users may have a loan to offset the cost of a bicycle. Users will repay such a loan on a monthly basis via their salary payments.
Report on Board meeting of 22 February
Report on Board meeting of 22 February: Tom Divers reported that he has had a recent meeting with NHS Argyll and Clyde and there will be in future bi-monthly meetings with this Board and NHS Lanarkshire. The No Smoking policy in Glasgow Hospitals was approved for consultation with staff and the public. Catriona Renfrew advised that there had been no significant impact on NHS GG as a result of the closure of A&E at Vale of Leven. The ambulance service took the view that it was quicker to cross the Erskine Bridge and go along the motorway to the RAH in Paisley. Their second choice would be the SGH rather than access Gartnavel. Councillor White, a Board member, questioned the decision to use the Erskine Bridge or the Clyde Tunnel. As a result it was minuted that this topic could be revisited if necessary in future. The Car Parking Policy was approved and an implementation Group is to be set up. The new multi-storey car park at the Royal Infirmary will open this summer. There will be an additional Board meeting in March.
The date of the next meeting is Tuesday 8 March 2005 at 7.30 p.m.