19th April 2007 - Board Minutes
Minutes of the Meeting of the Board of the Irish Blood Transfusion Service held on Thursday 19th April 2007 at 2.00 p.m. in the Boardroom, National Blood Centre, James's Street, Dublin 8
Present: Mr. Sean Wyse (Acting Chairperson)
Dr. Margaret Murray
Dr Mary Cahill
Ms. Margaret Mullett
Dr Robert Landers
Ms Jane OBrien
Mr David Lowe (via conference call)
Apologies: MsMaura McGrath
Dr Cees Van Der Poel
Mr Gerry ODwyer
Mr David Keenan
Mr Mark Moran
Also in attendance: Mr. Andrew Kelly, Chief Executive
Dr William Murphy, National Medical Director
Ms. Mirenda ODonovan, Secretary to the Board
1. Minutes of the meeting of20th March 2007
The minutes of the meeting of 20th March were agreed subject to amendment, proposed by Dr Mary Cahill and seconded by Ms Margaret Mullett.
The Board agreed that Mr Sean Wyse should act as Chairperson.
2. Matters arising
The Chief Executive informed the Board that he had met the unions last week about the pension scheme and they were to revert to him shortly on the changes.
In relation to the IR Forum, it has not yet been possible to get a document agreed between SIPTU and the IBTS but the matter is being pursued.
3. Chief Executives Report
CUMH provision of service agreement
An independent expert has visited the hospital to carry out a thorough evaluation of the arrangements. He found that the interim arrangements in place were satisfactory.
A meeting to review the operation of the agreement is scheduled to take place inCorkon Monday 23rd April. TheBoardagreed to return to the issue in May to get an update on progress with the laboratory extension project in CUH.
Quality system KPIs
The Chief Executive will revert to the Board with KPIs for the quality system in June.
Balanced Scorecard
The Acting Chairperson noted that a lot of work had gone in to preparing this for the Board and asked if they had any comments or views they should revert to the Finance Committee Chairman.
4. Presentation by Director of Operations
The Director of Operations made a presentation to the Board giving an overview of the blood supply and an update on various ongoing projects. The Board thanked him for his detailed and informative presentation.
5. CorkCentre
It is hoped that a meeting with the Minister will take place shortly.
6. National Haemovigilance Office
The Board also agreed that the Director of the NHO would make a presentation at the next Board meeting summarising the evaluation of the NHO carried out by Dr Paul Strengers for the Department of Health and Children. It was also agreed that the Chief Executive would check to see if Dr Strengers was available to attend that meeting.
It was also agreed that the feasibility of circulating the handbook on haemovigilance should be examined even if it was issued as an interim document, after amendment.
7. eProgesa
The CE outlined the background to the decision on this matter. He pointed out that the priority was to stabilise the current version of Progesa on new hardware as HP wont guarantee service on the existing servers.
8. Minutes of Finance Committee Meeting
The Minutes of the Finance Committee meeting of 10th January were noted. At the April meeting a research reserve and the Financial Statements were discussed. The Financial Statements will go to the Audit Committee in June and then to the Board.
There was some discussion about insurance for the IBTS in relation to the differential between claims versus policy costs. The Director of Finance is to pursue this further. The Committee also approved the retention of Marsh as IBTS broker.
It was noted that there was a downturn in income, following a drop in issues for the 1st quarter. It has been agreed that management would look at costs. It was also agreed that Finance Committee would reviewcapital expenditure projects in excess of ¬250,000.
9. Minutes of Medical Advisory Committee
The NMD is exploring options to source plasma from BSE free countries, specifically Nordic countries. The Ethics Committee in CUH has agreed to the proposal for trials of the vCJD filter. It was agreed that the KPIs which had been signed off at the MAC would be a substantive issue on the Board agenda at the next meeting.
It was agreed that medical issues raised by the IMB in its annual report would be extracted for discussion at the MAC.
10. Profile of the IBTS
This item was deferred until the next meeting.
10. Date of next meeting
It was agreed that the next meeting of the Board will take place on Tuesday 15th May 2007 at 2.00pm
Signed:______________________ Date:______________
