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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
12 September 2006 at 7.30 p.m.
Contents
Welcome
Welcome Margaret Hinds welcomed everyone to the meeting.
Apologies:
Apologies: Alastair Glen, Elizabeth Bashir, Alister Mitchell, Catherine Milne, Rhoda Ritchie, Irene Addie
Douglas McGregor, Dorothy Walls, Aileen Fyfe
Minutes
Minutes of 13 June and 30 August were adopted as correct.
Matters arising
Matters arising from 13 June We are still very concerned at the newspaper articles highlighting the shortage of GPs and Consultants although we have been given assurances that the Scottish Executive has the situation under control.
We note with interest that the latest copy of Health News features a telephone directory of useful numbers including NHS24. Could this be because of the omission of this phone number from the current phone book?
Matters arising from minutes of 30 August Alex McIntyre advised that a climate control system would be installed in the Victoria ACAD building. Eric Canning commented that, in his experience, negative feedback air chilling systems are not very good. The sudden uptake of energy can cause breakdowns in the system. We decided to write to Alex for further details. We will also ask about the fire alarm system to be used in the likes of the boiler room at the ACAD.
Correspondence:
Correspondence: A further letter was sent to Sir John Arbuthnott re the traffic survey commissioned by the Health Board.
We have since received a response from his secretary stating Sir John was absent from the office and she had passed our letter to Niall, the Head of Community Engagement & Transport and asked him to reply.
The last reply we had from Niall under exactly the same circumstances was that he didn’t know of any Transport survey! We await with interest his reply to our current letter.
Treasurer’s report
Treasurer’s report. Aileen Fyfe sent in a report that the balance as at 12 September is £2584.85. Aileen has resigned as treasurer due to home commitments. On behalf of the Forum the Chairman expressed her sincere thanks for all the work carried out by Aileen and also announced that Dan McPhail has agreed to take on the responsibility. We are pleased to say that Aileen will continue to attend and report on the Board meetings.
Reports
GG and Clyde Health Board Meeting 15 August; Mr Divers advised re the outline business case with respect to the new South Glasgow Hospital i.e. the Southern General. This will be submitted by the end of the year.
Brian Cowan spoke about work being done in relation to Modernising Medical Careers. By 2013 we will have more trained doctors than we have been used to. The Board’s statutory plans will be in place by 2014. The vast majority of care will then be given by trained doctors not trainees.
We have some difficulty in accepting the statement of there being more trained doctors giving care.
The Minor Injuries Units are nurse led. The introduction of Physician assistants, Anaesthetist assistants, Surgeon Assistants, Nurses in clinics and GP practices, the increasing roll of Pharmacists, all giving treatments and making decision that used to be carried out by doctors. Some of these changes may be satisfactory but most of them are being introduced without trial runs They are being introduced into the NHS structure and there have been so many changes without consultation that have become accepted practice.
When Delivering for Health strategy was discussed, (item 4.1 of this paper) one of the Board members, Dr Kapesi, advocated that patients should be informed that their GP has agreed to supply data to the out of hours services and NHS24. Dr Groden stressed that the information supplied was basic e.g allergies current medication etc. The paper was approved for submission to the Executive.
The outcome of the consultation on paediatric services at Inverclyde Royal was discussed at length. The consultation process had been queried by the public. In defence Helen Byrne argued that the 6 week consultation period had been because the current situation was not sustainable. Tom Divers said that the days of big public meetings “200 people in a hall” were passed. They didn’t guarantee a satisfactory process.
The Community Engagement Team was set up as a result of criticism of earlier consultation exercises and they are already engaging in Inverclyde.
The South Monitoring Group were shown a video by Niall McGrogan and his team on their visits to super markets asking shoppers what they thought of the new proposed hospitals. Would it surprise you to learn that they received a very satisfactory response?
Mr Calderwood said that the Board was doing well towards its in-patient targets. Out-patient figures in Glasgow were up 10%. Four papers were received by those in attendance just before the Board meeting. This is extremely disappointing. When the Network raised this matter with the Health Minister he took this on board and said that this would be dealt with as it was unsatisfactory!
Davey Laing of The Gas Board group (nothing to do with the GAS BOARD - they are a discussion group) has arranged a public meeting in Hillhead Library for the 2 November at 7.45 p.m. It will take the form of a Dimbilby Question Time with Penny Taylor in the chair and a panel consisting of Colin Cook (Scottish Exec Health Dept). Professor Colin Leys (authority on Public Health policy). Matt McLaughlin (Glasgow Regional Officer UNISON). Dr Vijay Sonthalia (BMA Scotland). Anne Thomson (Depute Acting Director RCN Scotland). Many Forum members will remember Anne who has accepted invitations from the Forum in the past and is a very able communicator. The discussion will be on The Future of the NHS. We will discuss our response at the next Forum meeting and will submit our questions to the Gas Board. Those interested in attending should advise Margaret Hinds.
Monitoring Group meeting of 8 September Construction begins on the ACAD during the second half of October. The planned handover of the building is scheduled for the end of January 2008 followed by 12 weeks commissioning in spring 2009 and will then open for patients. The new parking area is to open as soon as the equipment is installed to collect parking fees. Trolley waits in the Victoria A&E have improved since June but are still worse than 5 or10 years ago. The nurse led Minor Injuries Unit at the ACAD is expected to handle some 40% of present A&E patients (from a current 25% or so) with most patients presenting between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. Latest press report from Birmingham states that attendance at A&Es have risen by 27% since the new GP contract was introduced. We must ascertain the increase if any in Glasgow. The Board’s bed model was due to be published in August but in a dynamic situation it is constantly being refreshed and a definitive version has yet to appear. The Southern General Hospital development cannot go ahead without a bed model or should we say should not. Watch this space!
Malnourishment among patients was aired with reports of staff not being available to help those unable to feed themselves. A working group is looking at all aspects from food quality to delivery. We raised this issue a number of years ago when one of our members, Davis Keane, was a patient in the Mansionhouse Unit and were invited to attend and present our concerns to the official group who inspect conditions for elderly care.
Herald article on ‘Scotland there will be 750 GPs short in six years’ was discussed. Articles keep appearing in the press in spite of all the official assurances. Where does the truth lie? We are attempting to clarify this situation as we had been assured by both Dr Colin Hunter and Professor T.S.Murray of NHS Education Scotland that the number of trainees is adequate to meet future needs.
THE DATE OF THE NEXT MEETING IS TUESDAY 10 OCTOBER at 7.30 p.m.
