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Health Service Forum South East
Minutes of regular meeting of Health Service Forum S.E. held in the Larkfield Centre
on Tuesday 11 January 2005 at 7.30 p.m.
Contents
The Scottish Health Campaigns Network
Health Committee of the Scottish Parliament
Welcome
Welcome from the Chair.
Apologies
Apologies; Alva Caldwell, Eric Canning, Dorothy Walls, Irene Addie, Dan MacPhail, Pat Lally, Alastair Glen
Minutes
Minutes of the 14 December were adopted as correct. There were no matters arising.
Correspondence
Correspondence; IN a) Letter from Professor David Kerr acknowledging our request for a meeting
b) Information from the Health Board about a meeting on Community Health Partnerships to be held on February 24 in the Royal Concert Hall.
OUT No reply to our letters to i) to Ken Macintosh MSP asking for details of the new plans for ii)_to Jim Murphy MP regarding the statement in the EXTRA newspaper regarding beds at the ACAD.
a) Letter to Andy Kerr Health Minster requesting a meeting.
b) Letter to Niall McGrogan re opening times for Victoria ACAD. The response to this is attached to the end of the minutes.
Treasurers Report
Treasurers Report; The balance in the bank is £1362.50
The Scottish Health Campaigns Network
The Scottish Health Campaigns Network group met in Perth on Saturday 8 January. The meeting was not so well attended due to the poor weather. There is still the belief that that acting together the various groups have more strength than individual campaigns. It was reported that Dr Jean Turner has succeeded in setting up a cross-party group in the Scottish parliament with the advantage that issues such as hospital closure can be put forward for debate in the chamber. The next meeting will take place on Saturday 5th February.
South Monitoring Group
At the last South Monitoring Group meeting Robert Calderwood stated emphatically that the A& E at the Victoria will close as planned. There has been no u-turn on this decision. Mr Calderwood also said that he would send information to Margaret Hinds on the waiting lists for ENT and Gynaecology at the SGH. This has not yet been received. There was no mention at the meeting that haemo-oncology has been moved from the Victoria Infirmary to the SGH with a further loss of beds. 100 beds have now been lost at the Victoria Infirmary, most of them as a result of the Health and Safety Executive increasing the distance between beds in each ward. It is now an everyday occurrence that patients lie on trolley beds in corridors waiting for a vacant ward bed.
Health Committee of the Scottish Parliament
The Health Committee of the Scottish Parliament has published a report entitled;
Reshaping the NHS?: Workforce planning in the NHS in Scotland web site address www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/committees/health/reports-05/her05-02-01
There are 167 findings the following are only three of them.;
110. ….the net effect of changes is likely to be a substantial increase in demand for staff, particularly doctors. To date this does not appear to have been quantified by the executive or NHSD Scotland and health boards are still grappling with some of the issues.
112. ….in some areas changes in service provision are being driven not by careful consideration of what is necessary for an area or the best way of meeting patient needs, but by immediate staff shortages.
167. ….The Committee intends to sponsor a public debate as well as a Parliamentary debate on the findings and proposals contained in this report .
Please note that Calum Kerr of Scottish Ambulance Service will address our February meeting.
Date of next meeting Tuesday 8 February at 7.30 p.m.
