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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 Tuesday
13 June 2006 at 7.30 p.m.
Contents
Welcome
Welcome Margaret Hinds welcomed everyone to the meeting and explained that Alex McIntyre ACAD Project Manager was unable to attend due to pressure of business. We are seeking an alternative date for a meeting.
Apologies
Apologies: Alastair Glen, Elizabeth Bashir, Alister Mitchell, Catherine Milne and Rhoda Ritchie
Minutes
Minutes of 9 May were adopted as correct.
Treasurer’s Report
Treasurer’s Report; the current amount in the bank is £2369.87
Correspondence
Correspondence; a) Letter to Sir John Arbuthnott re the supplier of soft services i.e cleaning etc at the ACAD. Response received that the soft service contract has been awarded to the in house team.
b)letter to Helen Byrne Director of Acute Strategies asking about planned public meetings to inform patients about the new Victoria ACAD. Response received describing the Summer Outreach Programme, the new Victoria Hospital leaflets and DVDs and road shows on emergency and unplanned care.
c) Letter to Sir John Arbuthnott challenging the Board’s version of the winding up of the original Transport Group and quoting the e-mail from the Group Secretary. His reply – ‘This was as a result of a secretarial error and the e-mail was quickly recalled.’ Douglas has no record of this.
Reports
Reports; Following the meeting of members of the Scottish Health Campaigns Network and the Health Minister, Andy Kerr wrote to the Network about various points that had been raised. The Executive has commissioned a two year pilot project in NHS Scotland to evaluate the contribution that Physician Assistants (Pas) could make to delivering healthcare in Scotland. The project seeks to test the PA concept by recruiting 20 Pas from the USA to work in a series of sites based on bids by NHS Boards. The project will start in autumn 2006.
The University of Herefordshire is already offering a postgraduate diploma course to train PAs. The course will be open to registered health professionals and graduates with a life science degree but without professional healthcare registration. It will follow a 1-2 year programme depending on qualifications and experience. These new healthcare professionals are intended to take pressure off GPs and hospital doctors helping trusts to meet the European working time directive.
We wrote a letter to the GG and Clyde Health Board asking if the Board intended to be part of the pilot scheme employing American trained PAs and were advised that the GG and Clyde ‘is not participating in this two year pilot project.’
The Health Minister stated that there is no slippage in the timetable for the building and opening of the ACADs. We believe that the programme is behind the original schedule.
At the June meeting of the South Monitoring Group it was stated that the final business case for the ACADS is going before the Scottish Executive and should be approved by the end of June. The Glasgow City Council has given planning permission but do not know whether it is conditional. The building contract should be signed in July.
As yet there are no campus plans for the SGH development lodged with the City Council Planning Department. The bed modeling process is not complete so perhaps this is the reason.
Simshill, Kingspark, Mt Florida and Cathcart Community Councils jointly planned a public meeting for the 27 June and invited members of the Health Board to attend. The meeting had to be deferred till the autumn because the school room booked for the meeting was being used for the school prize giving
Health Board Elections (Scotland) Bill was introduced in the Scottish Parliament on 31 March 2006. The objective is to make provision for local public elections to NHS Boards in Scotland in order to democratize the Boards. It is proposed that a simple majority of Board members will be elected by postal voting. The Bill is now in the public domain for consultation until 26 August 2006.
The Scottish Health Council according to its Spring 2006 news letter ‘is playing a key role in monitoring NHSScotland’s new complaints procedure. In addition to ensuring that NHS Boards are dealing with complaints properly, the Council has a role in assessing how well the new procedure is working. Together with the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, it has jointly commissioned a research company, Craigforth, to explore the effectiveness of the complaints procedure.’ The study is due for completion this summer
Our comments; a) We are dismayed that the Health Council, appointed to monitor the complaint system, has to employ an outside contractor to do their monitoring work. b) We feel that the downturn in complaints against the NHS is due to the lack of support available to patients and carers. It was agreed by the Scottish Executive that the Citzens Advice Bureau would liaise with individual Health Boards throughout Scotland to set up a support system. Each Board would be responsible for the financing of the CABs in their area. We do not know whether Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board has yet agreed terms with CAB
An article was printed in May edition of the Sunday Times ‘Shortage of GPs set to turn chronic’.
According to a report, prepared by Dr Brian McKinstry, a senior research fellow at Edinburgh University and a practicing GP, and presented to the Scottish Executive, ‘Scotland is facing a chronic shortage of GPs and will have to recruit foreign doctors and attract more men into the profession to plug the shortfall’. David Love, joint chairman of the Scottish General Practitioners Committee, said he was baffled at the failure of ministers to act before now.
The Forum has invited a medical representative of NHS Education Scotland on two separate occasions and been given the assurance by both Dr Colin Hunter and Professor T. S. Murray that the number of trainee GPs is adequate. This is clearly at odds with the views expressed by GPs.
One of our members discovered that there is no entry for NHS24 in either the South or North Glasgow telephone directories. The telephone number of NHSDirect is given as the medical advice line. This is the English 24 hour service. When we queried the omission with BT Directories we were informed that their contact had instructed them to include NHS24 telephone number in the next directory. The Forum has written to the Health Minister asking for his comments. To date we have received an acknowledgement.
Alex McIntyre has agreed to attend an extra meeting of the Health Service Forum that has been arranged for Wednesday 30 August at 10.30 a.m. in the Larkfield Centre. We hope that as many members as possible can attend.