Minutes of the meeting of the Warwick Medical School Intra-School Committee
6th May 2008, 19.00.
Medical Teaching Centre, University of Warwick, CV4 7AL.
In Attendance:
Simon Roughneen – ISC Chair
Dora Hemson – ISC Secretary
Naomi Brown – MSC Representative
Una Casey- Phase I Management Rep Year 1
Dave Metcalfe - Faculty Representative
Tara Craggs ISC Representative Yr 2
1. Introduction and Welcome
The Chair thanked members for attending.
2. Apologies for absence
Apologies were received from:
3. Previous minutes
The minutes of the ISC meeting held on Tuesday 4th March 2008 were approved.
4. Matters Arising
5. Agenda items
5.2 MSC Conference 2008 – Simon Roughneen & Naomi Brown
Simon and Naomi presented an oral report on the developments of the recent MSC conference that Simon and James Watson attended in Cambridge. 3 of the motions that WMS ISC proposed were passed. In addition WMS with Birmingham joint presented the motion concerning the newly proposed Physician’s Assistant programme, and how this may affect us in training and in job competition. The conference voted in favour of opposing the introduction of Physician’s Assistant courses until, the MSC were consulted and informed, of its potential impact.
In addition the 2 other WMS proposed motions that the conference passed was:
· Sufficient exam timing
· Secured funding for graduate medics
Naomi wanted to congratulate the ISC, as this was the most number of proposed motions that the MSC had passed, a credit to those in the ISC that wrote them.
F1 Accommodation
Naomi wanted to bring up the changes to F1 guaranteed accommodation, which has come to light recently. Previously, the medical act stipulated that for F1 doctors to preferentially be on hospital site, NHS trusts should provide free accommodation. However, with the re-writing of the medical act from next year no accommodation will be provided. The BMA in sight of this has asked the Doctors’ and Dentists’ Review Body (who decide on pay scales) to uplift F1 pay by £4,800, to account for the lack of onsite accommodation. However the DDRB in their recent report have not recommended any pay increase which in effect means there is a 20% pay cut, and with the average F1 starting salary less than the national average for a graduate, this is unacceptable.
The BMA is encouraging medical students and doctors to contact their MPs about the
loss of free accommodation for new first year junior doctors.
The idea is to draw the to MPs' attention to this, so they are aware of the effect this will have on new first year junior doctors, newly graduated with substantial debt. It will also highlight the need top negotiate a solution with NHS Employers as soon as possible.
The BMA have created an email wizard that can be accessed on line, where you can find your contact details for your local MP, and insert this into a pre-written letter of appeal. There is also a facebook page that you can also access:
http://www.bma.org.uk/ap.nsf/content/PolWizJuniorsAccommodation
http://www.bma.org.uk/ap.nsf/content/PolWizJuniorsAccommodation>
If anyone wants more information about this or has any comments please contact
.
ACTION MAY 5.2
· Una Casey agreed she would help spread the word to the 1st years, Naomi will send a message for Kelly Parkes to send out in the weekly news bulletin.
· Naomi would also try and speak to the first years at their last lecture on Friday at UHCW.
5.3 UHCW Car Parking and transport – Simon Roughneen and Will Regan
Simon and Will presented an oral report on the exciting developments with car parking and the general transport situation at UHCW.
The ISC heard that the 30 permits that everyone has worked so hard to get have been given out to the first group of eligible students. These are those students deemed to have a high frequency of working lates and on calls: Obstetrics & Gynaecology
Paediatrics
Emergency Medicine
Surgery
Orthopaedics
The feedback from the group of students doing paediatrics was positive and this stream felt that it worked to encourage car sharing. There have been some teething problems with the obstetrics & gynaecology stream; this was thought to be due to some lack of cooperation. UHCW were happy with the process and the tracking. However it was suggested that the briefing re: the parking permits, at the start of block induction talk, could be improved. For this block Simon ended up going to UHCW and giving out the permits personally, however from now on the change over will take place at WMS.
At the moment there are 6 spare permits, as surgery and orthopaedics, do not now have routine compulsory on calls. The ISC were asked how they thought these should be allocated. It was proposed that they could be held by WMS to be given to students with acute extenuating circumstances, which would warrant the need for easy parking. This would be at the discretion of the medical school, and would be for conditions that had a short time course. It was suggested that Lara McCarthy may be a good candidate to allocate these spare passes, however the ISC realised she has many other commitments already.
Will (from the green wing) and Simon recently attended a meeting with Liz Winborn, Graham Hines and Royce Far from the University Security Department.
There have been 3 ideas that have been suggested to solve the transport conundrum:
1. Car Sharing – this will be presented at the next JAHD and SAHD, an email link to www.journeyshare.com, a website initiative that UHCW have signed up to. The idea is that by use of google maps, you can visualise all the cars that are driving from your area to UHCW and when, so you can organise car sharing. This scheme is being promoted to all healthcare students, and UHCW staff. Simon has tried to contact Coventry University with regards to this, but so far has had little success. There is also to be a new ‘Warwick Uni Share’ database that the University of Warwick are independently promoting. Emma Rivers-Fletcher suggested it would be a good idea to make the WMS staff aware of these schemes as well. Will to email Kelly Parkes to add it to both the staff and student newsletter.
2. Bike Routes – the green wing will be distributing safe route maps. The point of lack of showers at UHCW was also raised for the cyclists. UHCW have now created a very swish secure cycle facility, which you can access by contacting Gemma to get the code.
3. Park and Ride from University – from the recent meeting with the University Head of Security on behalf of Ken Sloane, Simon presented the following proposal. The suggestions was that students could drive/cycle to University and leave their car/bike at Car Park 2, from where fleets of University Minibuses would run to UHCW. The earliest bus would run from 7.30 proposing to get to UHCW by 8am. If students opted for this, they could receive discounted Car Park 2 permits if they showed they were employing lift sharing. It was proposed that secure cycle facilities could also be provided. Students would need to pay for the minibus, which was envisaged to be less than £10, that a day’s UHCW Car Parking costs. The idea of a direct bus from Leamington, although an attractive option was proving difficult to organise due to finding an appropriate coach company who would take on the charter. The other concern raised by the ISC was that if this scheme proved very popular, would there be enough space at Car Park 2 to accommodate all students wishing to utilise it. Also, the time factor was highlighted, as traffic getting to campus can be problematic.
ACTION MAY 5.3:
· To make sure there is better briefing at induction re: permits
· Students’ opinion will be sought on the attractiveness of the various options, through an online travel survey, that Will and Simon will work to create.
· The survey will include proposed arrival time of the minibus’ to UHCW
· Will to research into sourcing a prospective coach company that is willing to charter a bus from Leamington to UHCW.
6. Other business
Naomi had contacted Lara McCarthy on behalf of the 3rd years, to find out if there have been any changes to the UKFPO ranking scheme. She was informed that as of yet, the WMS have not received any official ranking scheme, but they do not foresee any major changes. They will keep us updated as soon as they hear from UKFPO. The 3rd years will probably not receive their ranking till their submitted elective report has been marked, as this contributes to the rank. This is estimated to occur some time in September.
There had been recent emails, that the Academic Programs that 3rd years can apply to for F1/F2 positions, would be posted by the 1st May however the UKFPO website shows no evidence of this. Naomi contacted the MSC secretary who said that not all the foundation schools have their submitted their programs that is why there is a delay. This should be available next week on the website, and for this year all the application deadlines have been centralised.
Andrew wanted the ISC to be aware that the SSLC have been in talks with Liz Winborn about changing the method of allocating the GP placements. A trial was run for the 2nd years where students could select the tope 5 sites they would like. However, she found that this system was not working. Andrew was proposing that for students without a car or without a bursary they would benefit from being able to select sites that were most convenient.
7. Dates of future meetings
The next ISC Meeting will be held on Tuesday 3rd June in the Medical Teaching Centre.
The future meetings are: Tuesday 1st July
Tuesday 5th August
The meeting adjourned at 20:51