 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Minutes of regular meeting on Tuesday 13th May 2003 held in the Larkfield Centre at 7.30 p.m.
Contents
General Comments from the chair
Welcome
Members were welcomed by Margaret Hinds, the chair.
The minutes of the meeting of the 8th April having been distributed were taken as read and were adopted as correct.
Correspondence In
A letter had been received from Deputy health Minister Frank McAveety, inviting the Forum to nominate someone to become a member of the South Glasgow Monitoring Group. Margaret Hinds will be the representative with Louise Laing as deputy.
A subsequent letter from John Hamilton of the Health Board confirmed our place on the group. A copy of the minute of the first joint meeting of both South and North groups was enclosed. We found this disconcerting as the joint group had already discussed their remit and had made alterations. As we had not received a copy of the remit the Chair phoned John Hamilton. By return we were sent a copy of the remit which consisted of Frank McAveety MSP's press release.
Two members of Community Councils from the south side were also supposed to be offered places on the group. We wondered how it would be possible to contact all C.C. in the South and ask them to choose two people. We have since discovered that East Renfrewshire Community Councils were not approached, nor were some Glasgow C.C.s.
To our knowledge a number of C.C.s have written and complained.
Three consultation documents on health issues have been issued by the Scottish Executive;
1. Reforming the NHS Complaints Procedure - response by 2nd June.
2. A new Public Involvement Structure (On Health Councils) - response by 9th June.
3. Patients Rights and Responsibilities - response by 20th June.
As all of these documents emphasize the need for public involvement and consultation, we find it difficult to understand why we were not sent copies. The secretary has written to the Scottish Executive and asked to be put on their mailing list. Not one of the Community Councils who are members of the Forum received a copy of these documents!
The Committee made strenuous efforts to respond to the first two documents.
All this effort to respond to consultation, which will once more be ignored. Neither the Board nor the Scottish Executive, we fear, has had a change of heart, no matter how justifiable the cause! It will be as always - to no avail! Our 234,000 response was ignored. What price any other response?
ACAD
We understand that a planning application has been sent to the City Chambers on behalf of the Health Board. All day surgery will take place at the ACAD which means that the patients from Govan will have to travel to the ACAD. It was stated at the Health seminar chaired by Mike Watson before the election, that 340,000 patient episodes a year will take place at the ACAD. It has been reported in the Extra newspaper that the Board are planning to offer part of the parking area at the ACAD for lease to Hampden. Their argument will be no doubt that as the ACAD will only open 12 hours per day Monday to Friday and closed Saturday and Sunday, there will be no parking problems for staff, patients and carers. However midweek events also occur at Hampden in the early evening. Would the contract guarantee that if the parking area is required for hospital extension it would be released without penalties from the Hampden parking agreement?
Treasurer's Report
The bank balance at the 13th May was £1400.79p. If you have not yet renewed your membership we hope that you will do so and continue to support the Forum. As you will note from our minutes, the fight to get proper hospital provision for the South East goes on! We look forward to receiving your subscription.
General Comments from the chair
Well done to Jean Turner! It is most encouraging that she got into Parliament. She will do everything in her power to bring the problems of Glasgow hospital provision to the notice of the members. Extract from an article by Jean saying that she wished management of the NHS would "break a leg" so that they would experience at first hand what it is like to be at the receiving end of having to lie on trolleys - being put into mixed bed wards - not seeing the same doctor twice - being moved around from ward to ward!
We will pursue our liasion with MSPs of all political parties. We have already made contact with some of them.
Yorkhill is now back in the firing line again. It appears that it is once more being suggested that it should be moved to the Southern General. As some members will remember this was suggested a few years ago but there was such a strong outcry from parents that the Health Board backed down. There was a clearly identified area earmarked for the Children's Hospital in the first plan which our architects were given of the future Southern General. If this were allowed to happen the traffic congestion in the South West would be intolerable. The SGH would be indeed be the biggest hospital in the UK, and close to the biggest in Europe.
During my campaign I discovered that parents didn't realise the impact the closure of the Victoria A&E would have on their children. At the present time all children under 12 years must go to Yorkhill but they can be taken to the Vic and stabilised before transfer to Yorkhill. If this proposal goes ahead all kids will be taken to the Southern General!
The Board is proposing to supply trolley -style packaged meals to patients. These will be prepared in the Southern General kitchens. The cooks at the Vic have been given three months notice or offered a transfer to the Southern General.
.
A piece of good news; Professor Sir John Arbuthnott, the Chairman of Greater Glasgow NHS Board, is pursuing very strongly, a case for the Greater Glasgow area to be given a considerable increase in funding to alleviate the health problems many of which are the worst in the UK. We wish him every success in his attempt.
Note we had a response from Sir John thanking us for our support.
Date of Next Meeting
The date of the next meeting is the 10th June at 7.30 p.m. in the Larkfield Centre.