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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 Tues 8 May 2007
Contents
Welcome
Margaret Hinds welcomed everyone to the meeting.
Apologies
Aileen Fyfe, Pat Lally, Alastair Glen, Douglas McGregor, Mary McClelland, Catherine Milne, Dorothy Walls, Alastair Mitchell, Ruth Elworthy and Mary Hamilton
Minutes
The adoption was proposed by Janette Butler and seconded by James Sandeman.
Correspondence
OUT:
a)
Letter to SPT requesting a copy of the transport study for the Southern General Hospital expansion.
b)
Letter to Helen Byrne, Director of Acute Strategies, asking why the reasoning applied to the reversal of the decision to downgrade the Inverclyde Hospital cannot be applied to the decision made on the ‘new Victoria Hospital’( a stand-alone ACAD with no A&E and only 12 overnight stay beds.
IN: a) Letter from SPT in acknowledgement.
b) Letter from the Scottish Ambulance Service in connection with the pressures on the service. Over the year 2006-07 there has been an11% uplift in demand.
NHSGG&C Health Board
Report on the NHSGG&C Health Board meeting 17 April 2007
The Financial monitoring report to 31 January 2007 stated that the Board is on track to achieve its financial targets. Douglas Griffin forecast a year end surplus of £26m as a result of property disposals. It has been agreed by SEHD that this can be carried forward and deployed on a non recurring basis to support the achievement of national waiting targets.
John Hamilton advised that the CAB service to support patients who wish to complain about NHS care is now up and running.
A Freedom of Information Officer has been appointed by the Board. Councillor Williams felt that the Executive should be supplying the funding for this post.
Results of the May Election to the Scottish Parliament were discussed. It is too early to know who will have ministerial office in the new executive as discussions are on-going between the parties. There will certainly be changes in policy and a fresh look at health issues.
There was no other competent business and the chairman closed the ordinary meeting.
N.B. Councillor Alistair Watson has kindly agreed to attend the meeting of the 12 June to speak about the transport issues particularly around the redevelopment of the Southern General Hospital.
Annual General Meeting
Annual General Meeting of the Health Service Forum South East held in the Larkfield Centre on 8 May 2007
These are draft Minutes, subject to confirmation at the next Annual General Meeting
Welcome
Welcome from the chair, Margaret Hinds.
Apologies
Apologies as per the regular meeting. There was a quorum of members.
Margaret Hinds stood down as chair and Eric Canning was unanimously elected to chair the remainder of the meeting.
Minutes
The minutes of the AGM of April 2006 were read and approved. The adoption was proposed by Janette Butler and seconded by Eric Canning.
Election of office bearers;
Margaret Hinds was proposed as Chair by Louise Laing, seconded by Alva Caldwell.
Eric Canning was proposed as Vice Chair by Irene Addie and seconded by Louise Laing.
Pat Lally was proposed as President by Margaret Hinds seconded by Janette Butler.
Douglas McGregor was proposed as Vice President by James Sandeman seconded by Eric Canning.
Louise Laing was proposed as Secretary by Eric Canning seconded by Janette Butler.
Mary Hamilton was proposed as Minute Secretary by Margaret Hinds seconded by Alva Caldwell.
Aileen Fyfe was proposed as Membership Secretary by James Sandeman seconded by Margaret Hinds.
Dan MacPhail was proposed as Treasurer by Janette Butler seconded by Vickie Simmie.
All the above were unanimously voted into office.
Treasurer’s Report
Treasurer’s Report for the year 2006-07: Copies of the unaudited accounts prepared by Dan Macphail were distributed to members by the Secretary. The accounts showed a surplus of £406.10 and were approved by the meeting. Scrutiny of the income and expenditure by an outside examiner will be arranged as soon as possible.
It was proposed that donation of £50 should be sent to the Prince& Princess of Wales Hospice in memory of Peggy Lally. This was agreed by all present. It was also agreed that the Forum should join the Larkfield Centre as a member for the sum of £10.
The Forum dues for the next session remain as per last year i.e. £5.00 for individual members and £25 for Group membership. A reminder will be included with the minutes.
Membership Form
Report from the Chair
Margaret Hinds submitted a written report. The Secretary agreed to include this with the next set of minutes.
There being no other competent business the meeting was closed.
Chairman’s Report 2006/07
An eventful year in the long life of the Forum!
Actions taken:
1. We have continued to pursue vigorously the elusive bed numbers, which has been ongoing since 1992! We are still waiting and the Health Board continues to prevaricate. Nothing daunted we will continue, as it cannot make sense to plan such a huge, expensive building programme without knowing the number of beds required. Two of our members had to spend 7 hours and 12 hours on trolleys in the Victoria A&E because there were no available beds but even more worrying there were no beds available in any hospital in the city.
2. The ACAD continues to be miscalled by the Health Board “the New Victoria Hospital” and unfortunately many people believe them. The slippage of the building programme continues. Many will remember that the first opening date was 2006 the latest date is now late spring 2009. Should we hold our breath?
3. We won the fight for overnight beds, which was good news, there will now be 14 (unless the number changes again). At least this means that patients who have not recovered from day surgery will be cared for in theACAD and not have to face an ambulance journey to the Southern General.
4. We continue to flag up our concern at the number of patients to be treated at the ACAD namely 400,000. Are the people of the S.W. fully aware that they are included in this number and will have to travel to the ACAD for day surgery, consultations & investigations?
5. We have asked the Board about the progress being made on the Southern General, as the Opening Business Case has not as yet been published. We may see this on their web site in August. This is pivotal for all of the south side, as the Victoria cannot close until the Southern is complete. Having visited Stobhill last week I was appalled at the dust, parking problems and noise due to the building of their ACAD right beside the Casualty Dept. The conditions being forced on a working hospital are unacceptable - a foretaste of the problems to be faced by the Southern on a much greater scale.
6. We were astonished to learn that the Board could not complete the promised Children’s Hospital at the SGH for the £100m allocated by Malcolm Chisholm when he was Health Minister. At present only three quarters of the proposed plans can be completed for the original cost. This, in our view, is disgraceful as many people have generously given to Yorkhill and continue to do so. Will it also become another PFI contract?
7. Politically it was an interesting election. The Forum held two hustings meetings, one in Cathcart and one in Newton Mearns. Both were chaired by retired consultant haematologist, Robert Cumming who is chair of the Scottish Health Campaigns Network. It was a privilege to have such an experienced person conduct the meetings. David Smith, a retired surgeon from the Victoria, stood in Cathcart. He was an excellent candidate on health matters, as you would expect, but we also attended a hustings meeting in Mount Florida Church where a wide range of topics was discussed and David was most impressive. It was a great pity he was unsuccessful. Dr Jean Turner was also unsuccessful in her attempt to retain her seat. All political parties with the exception of the Labour and Lib Dems were opposed to a stand-alone ACAD.
8. We had a successful Christmas party, which everyone enjoyed. Our treasurer Aileen Fyfe resigned due to family commitments but has continued to keep our web site up to date and to e-mail monthly reports and minutes to members.
In addition Aileen attends all NHSGG&C Board meetings. We are indebted to her for all the work she continues to do for the Forum. Dan Macphail has agreed to become treasurer for which we are very grateful.
9. Sincere thanks to the committee members who have met throughout the year to plan and discuss strategy. We are very fortunate in having as our vice president, professor Douglas McGregor. His expertise on IT has enabled us to follow and challenge the Health Board’s policy and especially on the aspect of confidentiality of patients’ records
We were saddened to learn of the recent death of Peggy Lally. Peggy accompanied Pat to all of our Christmas dinners. She had a great sense of humour, accompanied by a kind and generous personality. She will be deeply missed not only by her family but her many friends. Our sincere condolences are extended to Pat and the family.
Another year in the life of the Forum is over and we look forward to 2007/08 with renewed vigour convinced that the Health Board will have to do yet another U-TURN as they did with the Inverclyde Hospital, after Argyll and Clyde Health Board decreed that the hospital would be replaced by an ACAD. People were outraged as the distances involve in travelling to the nearest hospital were unacceptable. When Argyll and Clyde was incorporated into Greater Glasgow NHS Board, the situation was reversed and Inverclyde Hospital was reinstated. This made sense due to the distances involved.
It would make even more sense to rethink the stand-alone ACAD and incorporate it into a new Victoria Hospital because of the number of patients affected.
Common sense medicine is not so hard to swallow when you have successfully taken it once, try it again!
Margaret Hinds,
Chairman
