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Health Service Forum South East
Minutes of a regular meeting of Health Service Forum S.E 9 September 2008 at 7.30 pm. in the Larkfield Centre
Contents
Audit Scotland Review of Palliative Care Services
Delay in the issuing of discharge letters by hospitals.
Welcome
Welcome from Margaret Hinds
Apologies
Apologies from May McClelland, Betty Milne, Alastair Glen, Eric Canning
Minutes
The Minutes of the 10 June 2008 were accepted as correct and the adoption proposed by Douglas McGregor.
Matters Arising
Matters arising; Margaret Hinds and Louise Laing attended a meeting of the Larkfield Centre committee on the 18 August and reported on the work being done by the Forum. The committee were not all aware that the new
Correspondence
Correspondence; a) We wrote to Robert Calderwood, Chief Operating officer of the GG&C Health Board asking about the plans for the management and staff training at the new South Acute hospital. We pointed out that hospitals on the scale of the new south hospital are found in Europe and the
b) A letter was sent to Andrew Robertson, the chairman of GG&C Health Board, asking about the fire precautions for the new south Acute hospital and in particular a sprinkler system, the possibility of the return of an almoner to hospitals and enclosed a paper on IT written by Douglas McGregor. A reply was received assuring us that the new hospital will be fire engineered and fully compliant with the Scottish Government Health Directorate’s Fire Safety Policy for NHS Scotland.
Social workers are in place in hospitals. The WRVS and other voluntary groups collect money and the Health Board’s Voluntary Services Dept arrange for the donations to be disbursed throughout the wards. A team of three nurses and an administrative assistant cover the Greater Glasgow Area as part of the Glasgow Homeless Action Plan. Are these personnel suitable replacements for an almoner in every hospital? It has been reported in the media that English hospitals are reverting to Matrons. How many people have been advocating this and for how many years?
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The first phase of the paper-lite solution for the new Victoria ACAD and Stobhill ACAD will be in place for their respective openings.
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The procurement of the new hospital systems is underway with a supplier scheduled to be selected in May/June 2009 with implementation thereafter. We understood that the ACAD is opening in Spring 2009!
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Discussion is underway for procuring a new GP system.
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Patients and clinicians will see early benefits from the paper-lite environments in the ACADs e.g.
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No more missing case notes.
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Patient information available to the clinical team, from all hospitals in NHSGGC not just those that he/she is attending.
c) e-mails were sent to the directors of both the SE and SW CHCPs in connection with 24 hour strike of carers and the plight of the elderly. An assurance was given that emergency procedures were in place for the most vulnerable. In practise it meant that relatives of patients were alerted to the withdrawal of care for the period. Those without relatives or friends had emergency attendance during the day.
d) The Health Minister responded to a letter from the Health Campaigns Network re the lack of monitoring of services at the Victoria and Stobhill done by the North and South Monitoring Groups. She advised both groups to take the matter up with the Chairpersons of the two groups. Both Margaret Hinds, who represents the Forum, and James Sandeman, the Community Council representative, have frequently expressed their frustration at, in their view, a complete lack of meaningful monitoring. The North Monitoring group face a similar problem.
Parking Charges
The Forum is pleased that parking charges are to be abolished at NHS owned car parks but unfortunately will remain at all car parks built and run by PFI contractors. This will include the new car park at the Victoria ACAD.
Audit Scotland
Key Messages;
1. There is significant variation across
2. Most palliative care is provided by generalist staff in hospitals, care homes or patients' own homes. But palliative care needs are not always recognised or well supported. Generalists need increased skills, confidence and support from specialists to improve the palliative care they give to patients and their families.
3.Palliative care needs to be better joined up, particularly at night and weekends. Family and friends caring for someone also need support but this is not widely available.
4. In 2006/07 £59m was spent on specialist palliative care. Almost half of this came from the voluntary sector. It is not possible to say how much is spent on general palliative care. NHS boards and their partners need to plan now to meet the predicted increase in demand from an aging population.
The Scottish Government action plan on palliative care is due for publication in October 2008
Audit
1. The percentage of surgery undertaken as day surgery continues to rise.
2. There is considerable variation across the Health Boards not explained by differences in location or patients' circumstances.
3. If the 75% rate of day surgery is to be achieved it is estimated that over 34,000 extra procedures would have to be carried out freeing up £8m.
4. Over the last two years the Scottish Government have taken a more active approach to encouraging Health Boards to increase day surgery cases. With the introduction of same day surgery as the main measure there is an urgent need for NHS boards to improve their recording of outpatient activity.
Delay in the issuing of discharge letters by hospitals.
Several members told of incidents where they had been in hospital ,subsequently went to see their own GP to discover that there had been NO COMMUNICATION from the hospital to the GP. If the patient can express him/herself clearly and has an understanding of what was done in the hospital then this can be conveyed to his GP. Not everyone is able to do this. It was decided to write to the Health Minister re the monitoring of the discharge letter system.
Brain Scans following Stroke
For some time now we have been concerned about the delay in accessing a brain scan following a stroke or transient ischemic attack(TIA). The current guidelines drawn up by the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN)were drawn up in 1997 and have been under review for the past eight years. At present the guideline is a CT scan within 48 hours and no later than 7 days from incident. The parallel guideline in
Treasurer
Due to family commitments Dan MacPhail has handed over the job of treasurer of the Forum to Mary Hamilton. We are extremely grateful to Dan for the work he has carried on our behalf. If any member has yet to pay dues to the Forum could you send your cheque to Mrs Mary Hamilton,
The date of the next meeting is the 14 October 2008 at 7.30 p.m.
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