British Geriatric Society
Northern Ireland Council Meeting Thursday 11th November 2016
Laganview Suite Ramada, Belfast
Minutes
Present: April Heaney (Chair), Catriona McCullagh, Bronagh McGleenon, Damian Gormley, Jayne Lynch, Richard Fox, Brian Gallen, Jim Kelly, Peter Flanagan, Djamil Vahidassr, Aileen Jones, Beverly Hamilton, Aileen McSorley, Ian Steele, Mark Magorrian, Mark Roberts, Lynne Armstrong, Caroline Cooke, Ciaran Trolan, Samantha Leung, Rosemary Kelly, Mark Bowman, Gerry Sloan, Michael Magee, Pat McCaffrey, Dominic Hart, Bernadette McGuiness, Stephen Todd, Kevin Dynan, Michael Power, Cathy Patterson.
Apologies: Sanjeev Sarup
1. Welcome:
April welcomed Caroline Cooke Policies manager from Central BGS
2. Review of minutes of last meeting, and matters arising : April Heaney
1. Workforce planning: Dr Gillian Rankin, the clinical lead for the PHA workforce planning group in Geriatric medicine has updated April. Work force planning for Geriatric Medicine is on hold at present whilst a group examining workforce planning for acute medical specialities (which includes Geriatric Medicine) meets to identify the numbers of Consultants required to deliver a 7 day service. This work is anticipated to finish Spring / Mid 2017. Mark Roberts has been involved in these meetings from an acute internal medicine perspective. Following the completion of this work, the specialty needs of Geriatric Medicine will be reviewed. Action: April to update at future business meeting
2. Dementia Collaborative: Rodney Morton is chairing this group which is attempting to produce a regional dementia care pathway. Stephen Todd fed back that currently the focus is on diagnosing dementia in primary care through a pilot scheme: project ECHO: This aims to upskill GPs who can then present difficult cases through teleconference to a specialist. The next meeting is on Wednesday 19th November. Action: Stephen to update at next business meeting
3. Lifetime Achievement Award: April congratulated Pat on winning the well-deserved Marjory Warren BGS Lifetime Achievement Award.
4. Health Policy Forum: Mark Roberts continues to represent BGSNI at this forum which is attempting to influence strategy and policy planning in health and social care in N. Ireland. There is no progress to report at present.
3. Meetings
BGS Autumn meeting, Glasgow 23rd-25th November
UK Stroke Forum, Liverpool 28th-30th November
Enhanced Care of Home Conference, London 6th December
Trainees Meeting, Cardiff 17th January
4. Communications
Workforce planning - see comments above
April has responded on behalf of BGSNI to the equality questionnaire for the N. Ireland arrangements for assessing the applicability of NICE guidance on assessment and management of multimorbidity.
5. Committee posts
Secretary post: April thanked Cathy for her work over the last 3 years as secretary as she is now stepping down. Aileen Mc Sorley was appointed as the new BGSNI secretary after being nominated by April Heaney and seconded by Stephen Todd.
Royal College Advisory post: April thanked Bernadette for her work in this post. Stephen Todd was appointed as the new BGSNI Royal College Advisor after being nominated by Bernadette McGuinesss and seconded by Cathy Patterson.
Trainee Rep: Mark Bowman indicated that he would be looking for a replacement for the post of Trainee Representative. He indicated that central BGS are encouraging trainees in the early years of their training to take up the post. As only a small number of trainees were present it was suggested this was discussed at the next Trainee meeting and brought back for review at the next BGSNI business meeting.
6. Treasurer Update
Mark confirmed that we have £15,669.08 in our account as of 31st March 2016 and details of accounts have been forwarded to Central BGS.
Discussion took place regarding charging a fee to BGS members for future educational events, e.g. £25 – half day event and £50 – full day event. This is in light of increasing difficulty getting pharmaceutical sponsors for the educational meetings. There were mixed views. Some were happy that a small charge was acceptable. Another view was that charging would deter AHPs from attending the multidisciplinary meeting in May. Action: to be discussed at next business meeting with a review of costings of events.
7. Policy update
Caroline Cooke from central BGS fed back that there will a report on intermediate care schemes with examples of services published at the Glasgow BGS meeting. Caroline apologised that there were no case studies from Northern Ireland to be included in the report.
Caroline also advised that the BGS is updating guidance on commissioning care in care homes which will be available on the BGS website.
The Health Select Committee has consulted the BGS on how to avoid the crisis in A&E. The reply from BGS was that the crisis of social care needs to be addressed first and the government’s response to this is awaited.
8. Training – report submitted by Sanjeev
Training posts- We currently have 21 trainees against 17 posts. From August 16 onwards there has been an additional training post in the Northern Trust based at Antrim Hospital. Last year one training post in the Belfast Trust was re-profiled from Clinical therapeutics to COE.
Shape of Training – Internal Medicine Training will replace Core training in 2018. The current 2 year CT programme will be replaced by a 3 year IMT programme. This will have implications on the Specialty Training programme which will reduce from 5 years at present to 4 years. The new curriculum is being looked at by the Geriatrics Education committee.
Trainee Survey – Overall this was satisfactory, with some hospitals showing areas of excellence. There were some issues last year on the survey in one of the Trusts and these have largely been resolved.
Anticipated CCTs in the next 6 months – 2 trainees, Patricia Fearon and Gail Nicholson, will finish the training programme and get their CCT in Feb 2017.
9. AOB
Bernadette McGuinness recently met with Rose Anne Kenny from the IGS who suggested that there be a joint BGSNI/IGS meeting considered for late 2017/early 2018 where a joint report from TILDA/NICOLA could be presented. The overall feeling was that this should go ahead and replace one of our current educational meetings. Action : Bernadette will contact Rose Anne Kenny.
10. Date of next meeting – January 2017: Joint POA/BGSNI meeting. Date to be confirmed
Cathy Patterson
Secretary BGSNI