Matters Arising Not Covered on Agenda
NI medical students committee (NIMSC) meeting report - 11 March 2015
Welcome
Matthew Brown, chair of the Scottish medical students committee (SMSC), and Harrison Carter, co-chair of the UK medical students committee (MSC) were welcomed to the meeting.
Matters Arising Not Covered on Agenda
Committee members were advised that there were two matters arising to note, namely the issue of car parking at the Royal Victoria Hospital and the issue of the national exam. The chair advised that since the last meeting BMA(NI) had learnt that there are plans in the medium term for doctors working in the Royal Hospitals to be issued with a card for them to use at all Royal Hospitals site with a monthly fee payable. NIMSC will seek a discounted rate for this scheme in due course.
It was also reported that Collaboration for the Advancement of Medical Education, Research and Assessment at the Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistryis shortly due to report its findings on potential methods for the National Exam.
Election of Office Bearers
The current timing of the election of the committee’s office bearers presents some difficulties for those coming in to post as it does not precede the MSC’s training day. Newly elected office bearers therefore miss this important training and networking opportunity.
The chair explained that the secretariat had taken advice from the Welsh MSC secretariat. In Wales, if they know they have a vacancy for chair/deputy chair coming up in the next session, they seek (self) nominations and personal statements around May time from existing members of WMSC, including the Cardiff and Swansea MSC representatives who have observer seats on WMSC.
Committee members agreed to amend standing orders to move the timing of the elections of office bearers to the last meeting of the session
Policy and Political update
Governance in the HSC
It was reported that Sir Liam Donaldson’s Report was released on 27 January. A BMA(NI) response to the report will be compiled and finalised for consideration by the Northern Ireland Council Executive Subcommittee on 25 March 2015, and Branches of Practice Committees should contact Judith Cross with any suggested input. The BMA will be making comments regarding key aspects such as our concern about the proposed statutory duty of candour. The report focuses on six key themes, which form the basis of the 10 recommendations.
Judith added that Minister Wells has announced there may be potential to reintroduce prescription charges, a move BMA would oppose.
Oral update from Communications officer
Laura Darragh, Communications officer, noted that the BMA(NI) student facebook page now has a good number of members. She noted that it would take time to build up a really substantial following and that she had applied the committee to have a group on BMA Communities. The committee was also informed that it was hoped to shortly publish an e-newsletter to be sent to all students including an article on the new facebook page.
Update on MSC UK Activities and Priorties
Harrison Carter, MSC Co-Chair advised that the MSC is due to meet again on 14 March. Notably, HEE (Health Education England) will be attending part of the meeting to run a session on the issue of moving thePoR(point of registration). HEE have also set up two events (9 & 17 March) to further capture thoughts from medical students and doctors on the issue.
Harrison also advised that the release of the MSC’s Priorities document had been postponed until after the General Election as MPs were now heavily involved in election campaigning in their respective constituencies. He also noted that the committee continued to work with UKFPO on oversubscription to ensure those on the reserve list for the foundation programme do secure a post. In addition, MSC had been working with Prof Simon Maxwell to standardise the PSA test, which is currently used both summatively and formatively in medical schools across the UK.
The MSC Co-Chair also updated NIMSC on the work he and his colleagues are undertaking with the Junior Doctors Committee, regarding Shape of Training, the PoR engagement exercise with HEE, the fall out of the contract breakdown and DDRB submission.
Matthew Brown, Chair of SMSC, noted that Scotland is running a bespoke event on PoR which will take place in Edinburgh, and that in Dundee University, there had been a number of non-mandatory redundancies amongst the academic staff body which was of serious concern. SMSC were doing their best to provide support to SMASC on this issue.
Shape of Training
The Chair noted that a statement from the Shape of Training Steering Group was released 17 February 2015 to which BMA had issued a response. A BMA Council-level Task and Finish group is currently working to develop the BMA’s vision for medical education and training in today’s NHS. The end publication is intended to be a constructive alternative to the Shape of Training report. Consultations will take place over the coming months, including at the two deliberative events planned for London and Edinburgh in March.
The BMA DHSSPS HR Engagement Forum will meet on 23 March where we will be actively engaging on the issue of Shape of Training locally. Minister Wells has previously indicated he will be following the line set by the Westminster coalition on this issue.
It was noted that in Northern Ireland, going forward, the DHSSPSNI’s Medical Education Policy Group, will be the vehicle for taking forward Shape of Training, The Chair of NI Council has written to the Department asking for more BMA seats on this group.
Point of Full GMC Registration (PoR)
The Medical Schools Council welcomed the decision to embark upon an engagement exercise in the four UK countries to assess the implications of implementing the Shape of Training recommendation to bring forward the point of full registration with the General Medical Council to graduation.
In Northern Ireland, unlike the other 3 nations of the UK, no bespoke engagement exercise has been confirmed. Instead, that a BMA student representative has been invited to attend the DHSSPSNI’s Medical Education Policy Group meeting scheduled for 25 March when moving the point of registration is due to be discussed as part of the UK-wide engagement exercise. A member of NIJDC already sits on this group.
It was noted that an internal briefing paper on PoR has been produced, the main points are summarised below.
Those committee members approaching the end of medical school observed that they were acutely aware of how much more they still had to learn and felt that the F0 apprenticeship here, as well as the F1 year, were essential. They conceded that while it was mostly ward work there were important differences in F1 as compared with when a doctor gained full registration. It was also noted that by 2018/2019, the first cohort of graduates from private medical schools will be competing for places on the Foundation Programme. Concerns were raised that one of the driving factors for changing PoR is that it would mean that the funds would not need to be provided to fund oversubscription.
Universities Policies on Resits
It was reported that at the NIMSC last meeting it was agreed to look into how the medical schools across the UK deal with students who fail exams to ascertain how this compares with Queen’s University, to this end Kealan Barrett (5th year NIMSC representative had contacted the medical schools across the UK) to gain an understanding of their respective policies. Committee members were able to view Kealan’s progress to date in a written report he had submitted. It was noted that a number of universities had still to revert.
NI Medical Student Finance Subcommittee
Those present were advised that the subcommittee met on 6 February to begin work on formulating a lobbying strategy and political campaign on the issue of student tuition fees and of the NHS Bursary for graduate medical students domiciled in Northern Ireland.
At the meeting it was agreed that their were two main planks upon which we could base our lobbying campaign, namely;
1)Any increase in tuition fees here could reduce the socio-economic diversity of medical students and that this could be a potent argument when developing our lobbying strategy. Indeed this was an angle BMA(NI) had previously espoused when responding to the consultation on tuition fees issued by DEL (Department of Employment and Learning) in 2011. To this end, it was agreed we needed to elicit some more information to secure an evidence base.
2)A rise in tuition fees could further increase the brain drain already occurring in Northern Ireland. When school leavers and graduates leave Northern Ireland to study, they are not inclined to return, lower tuition fees here would help keep students at home, thus the region would have a better chance of retaining its best and brightest minds within the future workforce. Keeping tuition fees low is central to promoting Northern Ireland’s knowledge economy.
With regards to the current funding arrangements on the NHS Bursary for Northern Ireland medical students, the following actions were agreed:
Alex Grant had drafted a brief summary of the current financial arrangements for UK students according to their place of domicile and study forwarded same to Judith Cross, Senior policy adviser
Judith had agreed to ascertain if monies for NHS Bursary are held in a central UK pot and then funnelled through DEL (Department of Employment and Learning). If this is the case, then the money will have been earmarked for a specific purpose which would be helpful from our viewpoint.
Once this information has been collected, Judith will draft a letter regarding the NHS Bursary for graduate students domiciled in Northern Ireland and send to the DEL Minister (Stephen Farry) requesting a meeting.
Buddy Scheme
Molly Kerr gave an update on the buddy scheme event which took place on 4 February, she noted that the turnout had been rather disappointing and added that she considered the scheme needed meaningful endorsement from the medical faculty itself. She noted that we are currently seeking endorsement of the scheme for Degree Plus which QUB. This is an initiative which QUBintroduced in October 2008 to provide Queen's students with a vehicle for accrediting learning and skills developed through extracurricular activities.
Molly also reported that she and Joji had been invited to a meeting with the senior management team of the Centre of Medical Education on 24 March. The Co-Chairs thanked Molly for all her efforts in running the buddy scheme to date and said that they also hoped to attend the meeting. Members agreed that it would take some time for the scheme to truly embed in the medical school. Johnny Elliott (1st year representative), paid tribute to Molly and Joji’s work and noted that perhaps the last event had not been held at the best time for students, he had advised that there had been a lot of buzz about the initiative in the first month of the scheme and stated that while there had not been a lot of face-to-face meetings with mentors and mentees, there had been interaction in other ways such as facebook. He also suggested that it might be useful to give a mutli-media presentation on the scheme and emphasised that bespoke events may not be required as the informality of the scheme was valued. It was noted however, that in order to that the scheme was eligible for Degree Plus, some checks and balances needed to be in place to ensure that buddies were fully engaged in the process.
Medical Student Management Group
It was reported that the DHSSPSNI’s MSMG (Medical Student Management Group) met on 30 January and was attended by Andrew Steele who noted that all the Sub-Deans were in attendance except from the Northern Trust. Attendees at MSMG expressed concern that there had been only one meeting of the group in the past 14 months, when in fact, it was supposed to be every 6 months. It was acknowledged that medical education ought to be linked to the Transforming You Care agenda so that those graduating are actually trained in primary care, however there is no funding to ensure students get the appropriate increased exposure. Indeed Prof Pascal McKeown, Director of Medical Education at QUB, had indicated it was very unlikely that the GP pilot will be rolled out as this has been piloted year on year and has not secured proper funding.
SUMDE (Supplement for Medical and Dental Education) was discussed at the meeting. At present, SUMDE is heavily weighted to the Belfast Trust; any reduction in SUMDE funding would actually affect service provision. There remains a lack of accountability regarding how Trusts spend SUMDE money. SUMDE is due to be reviewed for 2015-16 and BMA will be responding.
Student Accommodation on Clinical Placement
The Chair advised thatthe UK Regional Services Liaison Group have drafted minimum standards for accommodation and noted that, separately, the Welsh MSC had undertaken some work on the discrepancy in the quality and standards of accommodation provided for students on placement in primary care. The committee was reminded that NIMSC had brought a motion on accommodation to conference and Andrew advised that he had mooted the idea of regional standards for students on clinical placement in NI at MSMG; members of the Group appeared receptive to the idea. Andrew further advised that he and Alex would be attending a meeting with QUB on 2 April to discuss accommodation standards.
Medical Students Conference
It was report that the 2015 Medical Students Conference will take place at BMA House London, on 24-25 April. Motions to conference by QUB and NIMSC have now been submitted and delegate places confirmed. NIMSC has submitted 3 motions to conference, on accommodation, SJT weighting and the NHS Bursary for NI domiciled graduate students. The last of these is our priority motion which is guaranteed a place on the conference agenda. It was noted that this motion had gone to conference a couple of years ago and been passed. Nevertheless, given the level of interest we now have from MSC UK on this matter, it was hoped that the time was now right to make some real progress.
Students’ anonymous feedback to QUB
Andrew Steele raised the matter of raised the matter of the standard of anonymous feedback students have given about lecturers at QUB, at times this had been abusive and very personally derogative. Committee members agreed that this needed to be addressed and the BMA could have a role to play in this by reminding medical students about the standards of professionalism expected of them. It was noted that most complaints about doctors are actually about their professionalism and the way they communicate. Johnny Elliott noted that communications skills are taught in years 1 and 2 of the medical degree at Queen’s and that it would be appropriate to ask if Queen’s could address the issue during these modules. It was further agreed to write an article for the facebook page to raise awareness.
Other issues discussed:
UKFPO (UK Foundation Programme Office)
Oversubscription to the Foundation Programme
Junior doctor contract
Medical Workforce planning
Date of next meeting
The next meeting will take place on Wednesday, 3 June 2015 at 2.30pm
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