MOORFIELDS EYE HOSPITAL NHS FOUNDATION TRUST

Minutes of the Public meeting of the Board of Directors

held on 26th June 2014

Board members present: / R. Markham (Chair)
D. Flanagan
D. Harris
Sir P. Khaw
Sir R. Jackling
T. Luckett
P. Luthert
C. Nall
A. Nebel
J. Pelly
M. Sherry
S. Sinha (item 1566 onwards)
S. Williams / Non-voting directors present: / S. Davies
R. Elek
S. Storey
I. Tombleson
In attendance: / O. Brady
K. Jeffreys
H. Wilcox
R. Aldous (item 1563)
R. Jones (item 1563)
2 attendees from Novartis
Mr Babsky /

Membership Council:

A. Edwards
J. Wakefield

14/1563 FUNDRAISING PRESENTATION

Rob Aldous and Rachel Jones provided a fundraising update outlining the progress made over the last couple of years. Rob noted the development of the department which now comprised three core teams: Development/Major Gifts; Individual Giving; and Events. Rachel explained the £100m ‘major giving’ campaign being undertaken in partnership with UCL which is seeking to raise £75m for the main building and £25m to support the development and enhancement of our research programme. To date, approximately £22m had been pledged (£13m for the building and £9m for research) with an approximate £2m in the pipeline. She noted that the key challenge is confirmation of a site for the new build. It was hoped that a decision would be made on that shortly.

Rob outlined the ‘individual giving programme’ which continued to engage with grateful patients, our membership and other donors. The purpose of the programme is to try and significantly grow the number of cash donors; to establish a regular income stream; to develop our legacy support and also to help feed our pipeline of major gift donations. He briefly outlined the mailing programmes underway to the various stakeholder groups and the results these had so far achieved. He also spoke of the growth in the size of the donor base and of the individual giving income. Charitable legacies were noted to be a very important source of largely unrestricted support and this programme was beginning to yield some encouraging results with legacies received to Moorfields Eye Charity in each of the last two financial years. He also briefly talked about the development of the events programme, referencing the charity’s participation in the RideLondon-Surrey 100 in August and plans to develop a bespoke event that had the potential to involve large numbers of grateful patients together with their families and friends (The Eye to Eye walk on 22 March 2015).

In addition to fundraising activities, Rob highlighted the priorities of the department including support for the merger of Moorfields Eye Charity with the Special Trustees; implementation of the new customer relationship database (Harlequin); website development and review and development of the donor stewardship programme. He spoke of the redevelopment as an opportunity to embed a culture of philanthropy throughout the organisation. He also spoke of the importance of a positive patient experience on our ability to fundraise and acknowledged the work being done around ‘the Moorfields way’. Patients’ experiences ultimately dictated how willing individuals may be to engage and support the hospital. Finally he expressed his confidence that the charity office should be confident of sustaining a fundraising income around £10m annually, providing that a clear pipeline of project needs had been identified.

The Chairman noted the significant increase in the donor database over the last couple of years and congratulated Rob and the team on this. Deborah Harris asked for clarification regarding the statement made about using a number of volunteers in association with Consultants. Rob stated that Consultants were very important since they were best able to make a compelling case and in some instances would be the gatekeeper to individual prospects. However, we also needed volunteer leadership, consisting of people external to Moorfields, who were extraordinarily well networked to help reach out to prospective donors that we had identified (peer to peer approaches). Deborah also enquired whether legacy names would be transferred from the old site to the new site. Rob indicated that this would not be the case but that thought was being given to how we would acknowledge supporters in the new integrated centre.

Steve Williams praised the team on the £22m pledged against a virtual project. He asked how the balance of interest sat between the Steering Group and UCL. Rachel explained that UCL were absolutely committed to the campaign. Steve asked where the money was kept before it was spent. Rob explained that with a capital build programme like this we were only able to call in the pledge once the project was underway and the hospital was incurring significant expenditure. Some of the money donated for research had already been drawn down or a timetable for redemption agreed with the donor. Finally Steve enquired whether the merger of the Special Trustees and Moorfields Eye Charity would provide additional funds for the project. Rob explained that £15m had already been committed by the Special Trustees but it may be that there would be scope later in the campaign to seek further support to help bring the campaign to a close.

Andrew Nebel said that the Board took comfort from the presentation given. He asked if work had been done about naming the new facility. Kate Jeffreys reported this was currently underway and it was hoped to have some clarity around this fairly soon. Roger Jackling also noted his encouragement. He suggested a really compelling statement was required for the campaign in terms of the value of translational research that would come from the new facility and the joining of the hospital with the Institute of Ophthalmology. Rob and Rachel agreed and emphasised the importance of enhancing our research infrastructure as key to making a compelling case for development of the new building.

The Chairman asked Peng Khaw whether there were lessons to be learned from past fundraising experiences. Peng indicated the need to present a clearly articulated vision beyond routine clinical services. He felt that unless we presented a charismatic vision, we would not get funding on the required scale.

The Chairman said that clearly the ‘major giving project’ dominated our thinking and approach, but asked how we ensured that we did not overlook other needs in other locations. Rob noted that efforts to engage with the main satellites were ongoing and that scope existed potentially to fundraise to support particular needs at particular satellites if that was an area deemed a priority by the hospital. However, these were often complicated in that many of the host hospitals had their own fundraising campaigns and there would be sensitivities around the scope of our fundraising there.

The Chairman asked how we would set out the enduring nature of a building so that some people did not feel disappointed in terms the outcome of a major project, as had occurred with a few of the RDCEC donors. Rob explained that the majority of donors for the RDCEC understood the rationale for moving from that building and the vision for the new build would be that it would deliver for us for at least the next 50-100 years.

The Board congratulated Rob and Rachel on their presentation and were appreciative of the positive results achieved with such a small (albeit growing) team.

14/1564 MINUTES OF LAST MEETING

The minutes of the meeting held on 27th May were agreed as an accurate record with the following amendment:

Min.14/1557: The Board noted, agreed and approved the annual report and accounts.

The Board noted the apologies of Bill Tidmas who was currently unwell and had recently been admitted to hospital. Although he was recovering well, he had indicated that he would not be chairing the next Membership Council or the AGM. The Chairman noted that arrangements were in hand for someone to stand in for him in the interim. The Board wished him well for a speedy recovery.

14/1565 ACTIONS ARISING

Item 14/1506: Deborah Harris enquired how the issue of procurement was being taken forward. John Pelly said that later in the year he would give a briefing to the Board from the UCLP procurement collaborative supplemented by some local intelligence.

14/1566 REPORT FROM CHIEF EXECUTIVE

Received: Chief Executive’s report

John highlighted the following points:

·  Trust Management Board – OpenEyes: A presentation had been given at the last TMB by Simon Pearce, interim programme manager for the OpenEyes project. This had given members a great deal of confidence that the recent concerns around programme management were being addressed. John indicated that at the appropriate time, when the new model for glaucoma was up and running, a paper/presentation would be brought to the Board. Deborah Harris indicated that the Finance team and Audit Committee would be looking again at the assurances around the financing of OpenEyes and asked that this be included within a report to the Board.

·  Trust Management Board – Another interesting presentation was given at the last TMB by George Saleh, Consultant surgeon, who had been working in conjunction with UCLH on human factors simulation training. This was a scientific discipline which many other safety critical industries had already embraced. The presentation had demonstrated the effectiveness of engaging in this kind of work. John also noted that the Secretary of State for Health had announced a number of patient safety initiatives, one of which was about the human factors national initiative.

·  Environmental issues with City Road theatres: The need for some quite extensive refurbishment of City Road theatres air flow handling had recently been identified. Mary Sherry indicated that a multidisciplinary group were working on this challenging task with work scheduled to start in August working on pairs of theatres at a time. The Chairman enquired how the issues with the air flow system had come about and secondly whether this could be a problem at satellite theatres. Rob Elek indicated that this work was originally part of the backlog maintenance programme 18 months ago, a significant component of which had not been carried out. Testing had been carried out at other sites and all had been found to be quite robust. Rob gave the Board assurance that there had been no incidents of patient harm as a result of this work not being carried out.

·  RTT 18 performance: Mary noted continued progress against admitted pathways which had improved by 3% over the last couple of months. The team were now moving to a position where the modelling was being pulled together to generate an outcome. The Intensive Support Team (IST) was meeting with Clinical Directors to talk through how that modelling was being done. She anticipated that in the next few weeks we would have a calculation for each sub-specialty across the organisation setting out the capacity needed both to clear backlogs and also to operate safely within the correct tolerances to make RTT18 targets obtained consistently. It would then be a necessity to determine how that capacity is put in place. In summary progress with RTT18 was slow but steady. Andrew Nebel enquired whether we had a view as to when we would get to the 90% target. Mary indicated that the trajectory done as part of a national return predicted this would be around September this year but the model needed to be tested first before this could be confirmed. Declan informed the Board that he and Mary had recently attended a meeting with the commissioners and they remained assured that we were taking all effective measures to ensure that no patients had come to harm as a result of the delays in meeting the RTT18 target.

·  Visit to Ghana: John Pelly and Charles Nall recently visited Ghana. Due to the sensitive nature of some of the matters an update would be given in the confidential Board.

·  Visit to Dubai: John Pelly and Declan Flanagan had visited Dubai and Abu Dhabi earlier in the month. This had been a very productive visit. The paperwork associated with the opening of the new facility in Abu Dhabi had been signed with the opening planned for the final quarter of this year. Time had also been spent with the team in Dubai to enable them to reach a position where they were fully aligned in getting quality and safety issues reported back to London. John also reported that we were going to be able to engage in teaching, training and research in Dubai. Declan reported that Claire Roberts had now come to end of her term as Medical Director in Dubai and had returned to London. Thanks were recorded for her efforts in Dubai over the last 3 years. It was hoped to appoint a replacement in late September. Declan also informed the Board that a clinical governance meeting had been held yesterday in Dubai and Declan had participated via Skype. There was now a full time quality and safety officer in Dubai.

·  Rebuild at St. George’s: Andrew Nebel expressed his wish that particular care be taken about the design of the basement area at this site, to ensure good working conditions and adequate natural light for the staff if possible. Rob Elek confirmed the designs would be taken to the Strategy & Investment Committee for approval.

·  Announcement by Jeremy Hunt: John noted an announcement last Tuesday which had several strands to it. One was that a new patient safety campaign had been launched, which we would study carefully to see exactly what was involved. Secondly, the government had launched a micro-site within the NHS Choices website which provided ratings for hospitals, particularly in terms of their transparency in reporting incidents. Thirdly it had been stated that Sir Robert Francis was going to do a review about whistleblowing in the NHS.