Scotland West District Member's Report for Guild Council Meeting 8.2.2001



Glasgow & West of Scotland Group Meetings
There have been no group meetings held since the last report. The next meeting will take place on the 1st February and this will be the Annual Quiz Night.

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Organisational Changes
With the retiral of the Chief Administrative Pharmaceutical Officer in Argyll and Clyde Health Board a replacement post has been advertised. However, it is a very different post from that of the CAPO. The Specialist Pharmacy Adviser - Public Health is intended to cover THREE Health Board areas. Forth Valley, Argyll & Clyde and Ayrshire & Arran Health Boards will all be served by this post. It is of concern that the post holder might never actually be in the right place at the right time in an area spanning Oban to Ayr and Lochgilphead to Falkirk.

Lanarkshire Area Pharmaceutical Committee has recently changed its constitution. The amended constitution which was approved by the Health Board in December and which will come into force on 1st April 2001 states that a nomination for membership should be made by the Scotland West District Member, GHP. I have written to the four representatives in Lanarkshire asking them for details of a nominee.

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Staffing
A grade C post in medicines information at the Southern General Hospital has been advertised and should hopefully soon be filled. A grade B and a grade D post will soon be vacant at Falkirk & District Royal Infirmary. The plans for replacement are unknown at the moment. A grade C vacancy has arisen at Gartnavel General Hospital. Replacement is likely to take several months. The D grade Oncology post at the Royal Alexandra Hospital has been filled, and a locum grade C pharmacist employed for 3 months to work on the implementation of the ASCribe stock control ad dispensing system. Locums have also been employed within Stirling Royal Infirmary due to vacancies at Grades B and C.

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Group Delegates Meeting & Day Conference Reports
In my last request for information from reps and contacts, I asked whether everyone was happy with the above reports appearing on the www.ghpscot.org.uk website only - as opposed to the production and issue of a paper report. The overall response was that the paper report would not be required.

For those who have not seen the report, it can be accessed by going to the Scotland West District Members page, or by using the fast find function at the bottom of the home page.

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Modernisation Forum
As a member of the Modernisation Forum, I attended the launch of the Scottish Health Plan - 'Our National Health' - in Edinburgh on December 14th 2001. Subsequent to that launch, I issued a press release which was picked up by the Pharmaceutical Journal and the Chemist & Druggist. There was a meeting of the Modernisation Forum on 22nd and 23rd January to discuss how to proceed with the implementation of the Scottish Health Plan. Notes of the meeting will be circulated to Council, the Association of Scottish Trust Chief Pharmacists and local Reps in Scotland and will also be available on the www.ghpscot.org.uk website as before.

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Scottish Health Plan - Strategy for Pharmacy
'Our National Health' contained reference to a strategy for pharmacy document which is to be produced. I have been in discussion with Alison Strath, Chairman of the RPSGB in Scotland, about the Guild being involved with other pharmaceutical organisations in shaping this document. I have also been asked by Michael Fuller, MSF Regional Officer, to arrange a meeting of the three senior GHP reps in Scotland to discuss the same topic.

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Scottish NHS Committee 10.1.2001
This was the Annual General Meeting of the Committee. The following office bearers were elected -
Chair
Secretary
Minute Sec
North Region SEG
West Region SEG
South Region SEG
East Region SEG
Primary Care SEG 		Bill Goudie
Roddy Kelly
Shirley Johnstone
Ray Fitzpatrick
Donald Sime
Alastair Mackay
Shirley Johnstone
to be decided

There was considerable discussion on the report of the exercise carried out at the last meeting on boosting the profile of the NHS section within MSF and MSF itself to the world. Part of the discussion centred on the MSF and MSF Health websites. The existence of the latter came as a surprise to some delegates. It can be found at www.msfhealth.org.

It was thought that there would be a NHS Conference after the national conference again this year, but no details were available. If arrangements were the same as last year, it would take place on the afternoon of June 12th.

Part of the document involved raising the profile of the SNHSC at the Regional Council. It was agreed that any items committee members wanted brought up by SNHSC at the Regional Council should be sent to the SEG secretary, Roddy Kelly. The SEG would be responsible for producing a report for each Regional Council meeting.

One item which needed to be addressed was a motion passed by the NHS NAC and not supported by the NEC at their December meeting. The motion condemned the intimidatory tactics used by the English Secretary of State for Health in forcing through three year deal last year. It also called for support of the principle of fair pay and equal treatment for all NHS workers. The reason given by the NEC for not supporting the motion was that it had been overtaken by events and that the language was "unhelpful". It was agreed that the SNHSC should write to the General Secretary of the NEC expressing our disappointment about the decision and asking for their reasons for their decision. The letter would also ask what events have overtaken the motion.

Michael Fuller: Merger talks with the finance union Unify have begun. If a merger takes place, there is a possibility that it will be at the same time as with the AEEU.

Pay: The announcement on the increase to the three year deal agreed by non-pay review body staff (see repsDirect 109) is not applicable to pharmacists, who have not yet agreed a deal. There was some discussion on he changes to the MLSO scales and whether this was the reason that there may be a ballot of pathology staff.

Agenda For Change: The job evaluation part of the exercise is proceeding apace. however, nothing has happened on harmonisation or pay progression. About 300 jobs were evaluated initially and another 200 odd this time. In December, Trusts were asked to volunteer to provide information on 20-30 jobs for the benchmarking exercise. Volunteers in Scotland are North Glasgow Acute, South Glasgow Acute, Grampian Acute, Grampian Primary Care, Highland Acute, Highland Primary Care and Highland Health Board. There is a question over Orkney, who originally volunteered and then withdrew. There would appear to be pressure on them to reconsider their decision. This should have been discussed at Partnership Forums, as volunteers for training as evaluators or analysts are required. Training days for analysts have been set up for 14th, 15th and 16th February.

The information that comes out of the exercise will be fed through David Renshaw, HR Director for Argyll & Clyde Acute Trust into the national process during February and March. It is hoped the final ranking order will be decided by late Spring and the full job evaluation exercise finished by early Summer. It is likely then to be issued in August for three months consultation. The search is on for early adopters in Scotland to start the process in April 2002. Whatever happens, it is likely that there will be some detailed appeals taking place after the exercise. The appeals mechanism will be decided on a Scottish basis - it is unlikely that Trusts will be allowed to go their own way.

It is important to note that this exercise will not immediately affect pay. At this stage, it will only match jobs of equal value. As with other systems, accurate job descriptions are vital. Trusts will have to find the money to pay for this out of existing budgets, but the proposed increases in funding should cover this.

Health Professions Council: This is the replacement for the Council for Professions Supplementary to Medicine and was out for consultation last year. A draft order is to be issued soon and the HPC should be up and in place by September 2001. It is intended to set up a shadow HPC from 1st May 2001. The shadow HPC would then become the real HPC in September to make the transition as seamless as possible. An advertisement for a President and 7 lay members appeared in the Herald on 5.1.01. Ministers are keen that the appointments reflect a good geographical spread.

'Our National Health': The Chief Executive of NHSiS, Trevor Jones, is to host a series of roadshows on the Health Plan. Visiting every Health Board area between January and February, the meetings will be organised by the Health Board and Trusts in order to get as many members of partnership forums, health councils and trade unions attending as possible. The prime concern in the plan for the trade unions is the unified health boards. Three draft consultation papers should be out by the end of February covering -

  • Rebuilding the NHS
  • Patient and Public Involvement
  • Redesign of the patients journey

NHS Glasgow will be created and all existing structures will be changed to allow working together. Health Improvement Plans and Trust Implementation Plans will be replaced by one health plan covering everything within that area. This has implications for the partnership forums. The Area Partnership Forum will have direct representation on the Health Board with corporate responsibility. The accountability review will be done through the partnership forum.

Trust partnership forums will be important for the operational agenda, but there will need to be links with the Area Partnership Forum which must itself be inclusive. There cannot be a process within the NHS which does not have a staffside component. The Scottish Partnership Forum will set standards for staff governance. Staff Governance will be added to Financial and clinical Governance as the three prime duties of Chief Executives and Board members.

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Continuing Professional Development Guideline Development Group
I attended a workshop on the implementation of Learning Together which detailed the work of all the Project Development Groups and their conclusions so far. Due to the meeting of the Modernisation Forum, I was unable to attend the latest meeting of the development group, but provided comments on a number of papers to add to the discussions.

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Advice and questions
Advice has been given on regrading. The most often asked question since the last Council meeting has to be what is happening about pay. The recent reports of higher than average increases for lab staff is not helping reduce members dissatisfaction with the delays. Neither is the persistant reporting of the lab offer as an agreed deal.

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Submissions
On behalf of the Guild, I submitted the GHP responses to Nurse Prescribing and Nicotine Replacement Therapy to the Scottish Executive Health Department.

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'ghp' and www.ghp.org.uk
Three suggestions this time for the journal

  • a comprehensive, cumulative list of conferences and meeting
  • news on the agreement of the pharmacists pay award.
  • less clinical information and greater emphasis on management and union issues
A suggestion for the website was an open forum for questions

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Group News
Kate Wood is leaving to take up a post in Tayside. I would like to thank her for her assistance in the past and wish her well for the future.

We still have a vacancy for Vice-chairman of the Group. If anyone is interested, please contact a member of the Group Committee.

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MSF Communications
Do you receive the following regular publications?

  • NHS News
  • Reps Direct fax
Have you recently received the Biannual reps questionnaire? if so, please ensure you return it by 26.1.01

If the answer to any of the above is no, please contact Colin Rodden immediately

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Colin Rodden
25 January 2001

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