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Health Service Forum South East
Minutes of meeting 7.30pm Tuesday 11th May 2004 in the Larkfield Centre
Contents
Report on the Meeting of the 15th May in Perth
Notes from NHSGG Board Meeting of 18th May
Chair: Margaret Hinds
Apologies
Apologies were received from: Dr Rhoda Ritchie, Dorothy Walls, Fiona Brodie, Louise Laing.
Minutes
Minutes of the meeting on 13th April were approved.
Queen Mother’s
Margaret and Aileen attended the recent meeting. Despite a good case put forward by Mrs. Sally Kuenssberg, supported by Cllr Andy White, the closure of the QM's was steamrollered through with notable support from Tim Davidson (ex Chief Executive of the North Trust) and Cllr Danny Collins (East Ren, and understood to be resident in the Argyll & Bute catchment area). Many of the Board said little, and indications are that Yorkhill will follow, thus destroying one of the major centres of excellence GGNHS says it wants to foster. The Forum is dismayed, but cannot give up.
Mearnskirk
The remaining 72-bed unit is ideally placed to accommodate elderly bed-blockers with family in the Mearns area, yet it is under-utilised. Robert Calderwood has said that "nobody wants to go there" (as if patients had much choice), but it is significant that it is has poor public transport service. Rumours of impending closure are rife, with all the signs of an engineered failure. The potential development value of the land has not gone unnoticed. "Blue Book" figures requested from GGNHS state that Mearnskirk has 89.8 % occupancy at March 2003. East Ren Council have been asked for their policy on care for the elderly, and the criteria for admission to Mearnskirk are to be sought.
Community Health Partnerships
Fiona Brodie's excellent e-mailed submission "was not received", but subsequent hard copy has been acknowledged by John Hamilton of the GGNHS Board. We are assured that a copy of our response will be sent to the Primary Care division in order that they may consider it along with other responses. See the GGNHS web site www.nhsgg.org.uk. for responses to this consultation.
“Keeping the NHS local”
The Scottish Parliament Health Committee has no plan to consider this DoH paper which applies to England and Wales, but suggest it could be an element in the current enquiry on workforce planning. A letter has been sent to the committee convenor to this effect. The alternative suggestion from the clerk to the Health Committee is to raise a petition.
Hospital Care for the Elderly
Bed numbers are hard to tie down, with a supposed 220 in Mansionhouse, 72 in Mearnskirk, 192 in private Nursing Homes and "some" in SGH and the Victoria. We learned last week that planning consent has been granted for housing development at Mansionhouse, so if the ACAD is to have 60 rehabilitation beds there will be 160 to find at SGH (Mansionhouse "is to remain open until beds are available at the SGH"). No response yet to our query on the future of the Millbrae unit in post and anti natel care, praised by the Board for its performance.
Trust Meeting – 3rd March
Margaret reported on some highlights of this final meeting before the Trust became the South Glasgow University Hospitals Division on 1/4/04.
Financial report: A £2.653m shortfall at 31/1/04 is forecast to become a year-end deficit of £3.18m. Long-standing debts from Argyll & Clyde and Lanarkshire are "being pursued", more in hope than expectation.
Waiting times: Having achieved the 9-month limit by 31/1/04 (at what cost?), the target for 31/12/05 is 6 months. Resources remain an issue if this is to be met.
ACAD: Outline planning consent has been granted (no detailed design) and the Final Invitation To Negotiate issued (catering and telecoms excluded, and an in-house team would bid for portering and domestics). The single bidder is not yet locked into a contract.
A pan-Glasgow ACAD team is to be created, under Alex McIntyre as Project Manager. It is not clear how this relates to the Project Management and Design Services team advertised for in February.
Eric Canning highlighted the lack of "meat" in a document praising GGNHS' consultation process (sic). Despite Board protestations to the contrary, it confirms that there is as yet no detailed plan.
Operations: A diagram of roles and responsibilities of the new Divisions would be updated.
A & E: Scotland-wide survey to be carried out over the weekend 23rd -26th April, the timing chosen by Information & Statistics Division as being representative (?) and reducing administrative burden (?).
A paper summarising the 2003 findings shows the Victoria out-performing the SGH on all counts, with an older patient profile.
Acceleration of hospital modernisation plan: Some services had been moved into South Glasgow and none lost. Reference to "opportunities...within existing accommodation to house further services".!
Overseas recruitment: After the newspaper headlines in February about "NHS slaves...gangmaster leaves nurses on £8 a day...NHS pay him £800 for every new recruit" it is comforting to read that " financial arrangements were entirely between the staff and the agency.....the appointment of the agency had been appropriate" but that a repeat recruiting drive was no longer thought appropriate. A report will be done.
Pan-Scotland Group: The Group is gaining momentum, with at least 12 groups from all parts involved. All face similar uncertainties, e.g. threats to Fort William Belford, Perth Maternity, Caithness Maternity.
Margaret is attending the next meeting, on Saturday 15th May in Perth.
Dr Jean Turner MSP is organising a Cross party Group meeting in Edinburgh on Wednesday 12th May to address The Loss of Consultant Led Services in Scotland. This is quite separate from the Pan-Scotland Group, and few MSPs seem to be involved - Louise Laing and James Sandeman will attend and report back.
Dr Matthew Dunnigan is preparing a report on the lack of benefit from increased NHS funding (apart from more admin.), and on the single bidder scenario - he will address the Forum on 8th June. Quangos are a waste of time and money.
Complaints: Margaret reported on the excellent assistance she had received from Brenda Floan, Complaints Manager (covering SGH and Victoria) (201-1262. The Helpline is (201-1161.
Homeopathic Hospital: The closure of in-patient beds has just been announced, seen as a retrograde step. Margaret and James will try to take this up at the Monitoring Group on 4th June.
Treasurer’s Report
1. Membership subscriptions are now due. Members are asked to remind their Community Councils for theirs.
2.
The generous interest-free loan has now been paid back, and our current balance stands at £815.83.
Report on the Meeting of the 15th May in Perth
At the inaugural meeting, action groups met from throughout Scotland to form the Scottish Health Campaign Network, ‘The People’s Voice’. Office bearers are as follows; Chair Dr George Venters (Edinburgh) Vice Chair Margaret Hinds, Secretary Sarah Low (Edinburgh), Treasurer/minute secretary Lambert Sinclair (Glasgow).
Ten groups from Caithness, Fife, Vale of Leven, Perth, Edinburgh and Glasgow were represented with apologises from Belford Group, Fort William, who were lobbying politicians in Inverness. The Network intends to pursue and pressurise the Scottish Parliament, the Health Minister and his dept., and the various local Health Boards; to justify to the people the many intended changes, with serious consequences for their catchment areas, which are presently being implemented without proper local consultation and agreement.
Note; It was interesting to read of the joint support of John McFall MP and Jackie Baillie MSP, to the Vale of Leven campaign. MPs should be forced to declare their support for local health issues, and not hide behind health being “a devolved matter”)
Notes from NHSGG Board Meeting of 18th May
Minutes; Councillor Handibode once again expressed his disquiet at receiving so many papers for the meeting on the day preceding the board meeting. He was given an assurance that during the summer the Board will be changing its way of working and this matter should be addressed.
Emerging pressures in acute services; Dr Cowan and Robert Calderwood made a presentation on this topic.( There was not one question asked by any member of the Board). The Casualty dept. at Stobhill will remain open until August 2005. It is imperative to reduce the A&E sites and to deal with capacity at GRI and SGH. Over the Summer discussions will take place to decide if the decision on A&Es taken in June 2002 is appropriate i.e that the A&Es should be reduced to 2 only. A team of 6-8 people are being brought together to bring this forward. The Monitoring Groups will be consulted on the sustainability of the existing services and the need to bring forward proposed decisions.
The latest figure for the cost of the ACADs is £265 million. ( The issue of escalating costs tends to have a familiar ring.)
Waiting times; The total figure in Glasgow is up by 12%. Catriona Renfrew , Tom Divers and Sir John Arbuthnott all stressed the difficulty of sustaining the figures for 9 month waiters.
Next Meeting: Tuesday 8th June (the last before the summer break). Speaker: Dr Matthew Dunnigan
