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Health Service Forum South East
Minutes of a regular meeting of the Health Service Forum SE held on 14 Oct 2008 in the Larkfield Centre
Contents
Scottish Health Campaigns Network
GG&C Health Board meeting 21 October 2008
Welcome
Welcome from the chairman, Margaret Hinds
Apologies
Alastair Glen, Douglas McGregor, Eric Canning, Alva Caldwell, Irene Addie, Dan MacPhail
Minutes
The adoption of the minutes of the 9 September 2008 was proposed by James Sandeman and seconded by Dorothy Walls.
Matters arising
Douglas MacGregor has still to raise with the Health Board Transport Group committee the issue of the 9% annual increase in traffic on the roads of
Correspondence;
1. A letter was sent to Alex McIntyre, Director of Facilities for the ACAD Projects, in the light of being told that the new Victoria ACAD will be paper-lite. We asked him how this would affect the fitting out of the rooms in the ACAD building. A colleague had commented that a paper-lite environment was envisaged in her office building therefore little or no provision was made for the storage of paper. The result in practice was that the office floors and desks were littered with papers/folders! Mr McIntyre’s reply states;
‘The design of the new hospital has taken account of the potential development of a paper-lite environment and, as such, the space provided for storage and our Operational Policies for the building take account of the volume of records that will be retained and circulated throughout the building.’
2. A letter was sent to the Health Minister regarding the monitoring of discharge letters written by Hospital doctors to keep a patient’s GP informed of the hospital episode and medication. Some discharge letters arrive some considerable time after the patient has been discharged and the patient may already have paid a visit to the GP or had to call in the GP. The Minister thanked the Forum for bringing this issue to her attention and we were advise that the Scottish Government Health Directorate will continue to monitor the situation.
In June 2007 and early this year, Kevin Woods, Director General Health and Chief Executive of NHS Scotland informed Health Board Chief Executives ‘that they needed top take action to review protocols and associated training to ensure that their Boards operated in a culture of openness, honesty and sensitivity to the communication of information to patients and their relatives. Health professionals were also reminded that appropriate communication between each other and other staff involved in patient care was essential. Testing is due to start shortly on electronic transmission of A&E attendance letters.’
3. The letter sent to the Health Minister on the subject of Strokes/TIAs and the Scottish guidelines on their treatment prompted a reply that SIGN (Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network) is launching a revised guideline on 16 December 2008 as part of a wider event entitled ‘Kicking Stroke into Touch'. The Scottish Government understand that the revised guideline will reflect the way in which recent contributions to the developing evidence base on strokes have strengthened the need for urgent scanning for those who have had a stroke. It was also suggested that we get in touch with the Programme Manager for Sign to discuss the matter further. We are pursuing this.
Scottish Health Campaigns Network
The Scottish Health Campaigns Network met on the 11 October. Margaret Hinds and James Sandeman attended on behalf of the Forum. James reported to the meeting that Richard Copeland, Director of IT for the NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde Health Board, had written to us to advise that; The procurement of the new hospital systems is underway with a supplier scheduled to be selected in May/June 2009 with implementation thereafter. Those involved in the monitoring of the Stobhill ACAD were equally worried by the date of procurement coinciding with the opening of the new ACAD and the length of time it may take in the implementation of the systems.
It was reported that a day surgery unit in
Representatives from the Network are meeting Nicola Sturgeon on the 17 November and the questions to be raised with her were discussed. Dr George Venters will deal with aspects of IT and Dr Alastair Glen will raise the possibility of a BeCad rather than a stand alone Victoria ACAD.
GG&C Health Board meeting 21 October 2008
Dr Alastair Glen attended the meeting on our behalf and reported;
a) The Chairman, Andrew Robertson, stated that he had met with Ian Anderson at the Victoria Inf and been informed that staff morale is high ahead of the opening of the ACAD in 2009.
b) The Board is in discussion over the removal of Health Visitor services from GP practices.
c) The two chairmen of the Monitoring Groups are to meet Nicola Sturgeon on the 17 Nov to discuss the future of the groups.
The main agenda items were;
a) The procurement model for the construction of the new
b) The Development of 12 short stay and 48 elderly rehab beds at the Stobhill ACAD at a cost of £16.5 m. Work to start July 2009 with completion December 2010.
c) Progress report on C. Difficile Plan
d) The winter plan 2008-09 Christmas and New Year’s day fall on a Thursday so that there will be four consecutive days of holiday working
e) There have been difficulties with the establishment of CHCPs. It is the expectation of the Board that the CHCPs will be functioning satisfactorily by April 2009. The responsibility lies with Catriona Renfrew.
f) The opening date for the new Maternity and Neonatal Medicine building at the SGH is December 2009. The intention is to link this to the new Children’s hospital
It was confirmed that the chief executive, Tom Divers, will retire on the 31 March 2009.
A fuller report on the Board meeting will be given at our next meeting.
Next Meeting
On Tuesday 11th NOVEMBER 2008 at 7.30 p.m. in the Larkfield Centre
our guest speaker will be
Dr HEATHER HOSIE, Consultant Anaesthetist and Chairperson of Glasgow & West of