14th December 2010 - Board Minutes

Minutes of the Meeting of theBoardof the Irish Blood Transfusion Service held onTuesday 14th December 2010at2.00pmin theBoardroom, National Blood Centre, James’s Street,Dublin8.

 

 

Present:                                 Ms Katharine Bulbulia, Chairperson

MrSean Wyse

                                                Mr David Lowe 

Ms Jane O’Brien

Ms Ann Horan

MsSineadNi Mhaille

Dr Paolo Rebulla

Mr David Keenan

                                                Mr Mark Moran

 

Apologies:                              Dr Paul Browne

                                                Ms Marie Keane

                                                Dr Hilary O’Leary

                                                                                               

Also in attendance:               Mr Andrew Kelly, Chief Executive

Dr William Murphy, Medical & Scientific Director

Ms Mirenda O’Donovan, Secretary to theBoard

 

The Chairperson informed the Board that a new member had been appointed.  Dr Hilary O’Leary was unable to attend the meeting as the day of the week conflicted with her clinic arrangements.  The Board were asked to consider changing the day to a Monday and agreed to return to the issue at the January meeting.

Ms A Horan expressed her thanks to the Chief Executive, the Operations Director and the rest of the Executive for their efforts to maintain the blood supply during the recent cold weather.  The other members supported these views.

  1. Minutes

The minutes of the meeting of 16th November were agreed without amendment.

  1. Matters arising

Reconfiguration of services inCork

The HSE report on this was published last week.  The Chief Executive has sought a meeting with the HSE South Director of Operations to discuss the impact these changes will have on service delivery from the Cork Centre.

M&SD Post

There have been some procedural issues regarding registration of Professor Ian Franklin with the Irish Medical Council.  It is hoped that this delay can be resolved in time for him to take up the post as planned.

IMB Inspection

The IBTS response to the IMB inspection report will be submitted early next week.

Therapeutic Apheresis Service

IBTS is still providing this service.  Despite strenuous efforts to have it taken over by the HSE and run as a hospital based service, this has not happened. 

The Chief Executive and Dr Fitzgerald will meet the CE of SJH and the HSE next week to try and resolve the outstanding issues.

Business Plan

The final amendments are being made today and the business plan will be circulated to the Chairs of the Board sub-committees tomorrow.

  1. Chief Executive’s Report

 

Blood supply

The blood supply is very strong at the moment.  There was a great public response to the appeal for donations during the bad weather.  Both red cells and platelets usage is down in December.

Finance

The Finance Director will be presenting the draft budget later in the meeting.

Recombinants

Primary legislation will need to be passed to change the contract holder, currently IBTS, to SJH.  A memorandum from the DOH&C outlining the arrangements during the transition period was discussed.  The IBTS has not yet signed a contract with the supplier of Factor IX as the issue of price has been raised by the HSE and a meeting is taking place today between the HSE, IBTS, the supplier and SJH to discuss this.  Current arrangements with the supplier have been extended on a monthly basis, however, the IBTS is out of contract since 1st December.

Financial Framework

The CE brought to the Board’s attention a request from the DOH&C to produce a plan before Christmas to reduce operating costs by 10% in 2011. This would mean taking €7m out of the IBTS cost base from 2011 and could mean the reduction of some services or the closures of others. This will be discussed at the Executive Management Team meeting later this week.

Redundancy Package

The IBTS has a date of 9th February for a Labour Court hearing on the proposed redundancy package for D’Olier Street.  The CE has gone back to the DOH&C regarding the HSE package, however this was not successful.  If an earlier date becomes available, the IBTS has indicated it will take it.

ICT

The DOH&C has decided to put on hold any further progress with IT projects, pending the payment of the monies collected for the pension levy.   Confirmation of this position was received by the Chief Executive via email this morning. 

Strategic Plan

This has been sent to the Minister for Health and Children and has been widely disseminated in the organisation. 

Donor Awards Ceremony

The Donor Awards Ceremony which was cancelled because of the weather has been rescheduled for 20th February. 

At this point, the HR Director joined the meeting for the discussion on the recruitment moratorium. 

There was a wide ranging discussion on the paper outlining a framework for the IBTS, on the same model as the HSE Framework.  The HR Director left the meeting at this point.

  1. CorkCentre

 

A scheduled meeting between the CE and the HSE CE on 3rd December was cancelled because of the weather.  The Chairperson spoke to the HSE Chairman and the CE had a discussion with the HSE Head of Estates regarding the €3.5m cost associated with the CUH site.  There is no possibility of this cost being reduced or eliminated, the provision of car parking is an integral part of the site allocation. 

The CE also discussed the possibility of an alternative site on St Finbarrs Hospital Campus and the Head of HSE Estates had no issues with this as an alternative.  The CE is in Cork on Thursday with the Chairperson and is planning to meet the engineer with responsibility for Estates in the South at St Finbarrs to discuss an alternative site.  The Government decision had specified the CUH site for the new centre.  It was proposed by Ms J O’Brien that the Chairperson and the CE progress the matter over the Christmas/New Year period if necessary and this was approved by the Board.

  1. Pension Scheme

 

There was a general discussion on the current position and the failure of engagement by the DOH&C on this issue was noted. 

A letter was received from the Minister and the Chairperson advised the Board of its contents. 

  1. Presentation by Medical & Scientific Director

 

The Medical and Scientific Director gave a presentation on current and emerging issues in transfusion medicine.  The Chairperson thanked the M&SD for his presentation and for his contribution to the IBTS since joining in 1996.

  1. Budget 2011

 

The draft budget for 2011 was presented by the Director of Finance.  The Board approved the exclusion of recombinant sales and cost of sales from the budget.  This was proposed by Mr D Lowe and seconded by Mr S Wyse.  The Board approved the 2011 pricing strategy.  This was proposed by Ms O’Brien and seconded by Ms S Ni Mhaille.  The Board approved the 2011 WTE budget.  This was proposed by Ms J O’Brien and seconded by Mr D Lowe.  The Board approved the 2011 budget.  This was proposed by Mr D Lowe and seconded by Ms J O’Brien. The budget sees a breakeven position in 2011, based on no changes in pricing, a 6% reduction in platelet volumes, a 1.5% reduction in red cell volumes, a 2% increase in staff costs and a 2% decrease in overhead (all relative to 2010 forecast). The increase in staff costs is caused largely by annual increments.

The impact of the Government budget regarding employer PRSI was noted.  It was agreed that the Executive would prepare a paper including costings for the Board on a redundancy programme.     

  1. Minutes of the Finance Committee meeting on2nd November 2010

 

The minutes of the meeting were taken as read.  It was noted that the Operations Director has been nominated to the EBA Benchmarking Group and that this will give the IBTS a voice on the future direction of this group and could influence the kind of information being collected across the EBA, as well as access to it.

  1. Minutes of the MAC meeting on16th November 2010

 

The minutes were taken as read.  The M&SD pointed out that the HIQA process for assessing new technologies has concluded with prion filtration and that a report will be going to the HIQA Board towards the end of January, followed by a recommendation to the Minister for Health & Children.  Mr S Wyse proposed and Mr D Lowe seconded the appointment of Dr H O’Leary to the MAC.   The CE also noted that a meeting was due to take place to agree a date for mandatory reporting to go from the NHO to the IMB.

  1. AOB

 

It was agreed that the Secretary to the Board would email all Board members regarding the proposed change of week day for Board meetings.

The Chairperson thanked the Board and the Executive for their work during the year and wished everyone a happy and peaceful Christmas.

  1. Date of next meeting

The date of the next meeting of the Board is Monday 17th January 2011at2pm.

Signed: ___________________                                 Date:_______________