16th November 2010 - Board Minutes
Minutes of the Meeting of theBoardof the Irish Blood Transfusion Service held onTuesday 16th November 2010at1.00pmin theBoardroom, National Blood Centre, James’s Street,Dublin8.
Present: Ms Katharine Bulbulia, Chairperson
MrSean Wyse
DrPaulBrowne
Mr David Lowe
Ms Jane O’Brien
Ms Ann Horan
MsSineadNi Mhaille
Dr Paolo Rebulla
Mr David Keenan
Ms Marie Keane
MrMark Moran
Also in attendance: Mr Andrew Kelly, Chief Executive
Dr William Murphy, Medical & Scientific Director
Ms Mirenda O’Donovan, Secretary to theBoard
The Chairperson congratulated Ms Jane O’Brien on her reappointment to the Board and also expressed her thanks to Dr Mary Cahill for her contribution to the Board over two terms.
1. Minutes of the Meeting of theBoardonTuesday 19th October 2010
The minutes, subject to amendment were proposed by Ms Marie Keane and seconded by Mr Sean Wyse.
2. Matters arising
Reconfiguration of services inCorkarea
The CE has had meetings with Dr Power and J Willis about the implications of health services being reconfigured in HSE South for the Cork Centre.
R&D proposals
Two proposals have been received. These will be reviewed in detail by the group established by the Board to do so. The M&SD will liaise with the review group.
M&SD Post
Professor Franklin’s registration with the Medical Council is being processed.
NBC 10th anniversary
The exhibition of posters and photographs from the archives for the 10th anniversary of the NBC will commence this evening.
Restructuring inD’Olier Street
The redundancy package on offer to six staff in D’Olier Street has been referred to the Labour Court. The terms on offer under the HSE scheme are not available to IBTS staff. The HR Director has written to the DOH&C again about an employment control number for the IBTS, but has not received a response.
Dr Lawlor’s retirement
A locum has been in place since 1st November. She is covering some of Dr Lawlor’s duties but the overall distribution of work among the consultants will be reviewed when Prof Franklin starts in January.
B&A Presentation
It was agreed following the presentation on qualitative research at the last Board meeting, that a note would be prepared for the Board on the IBTS communications strategy for the January meeting.
Governance workshop
It was agreed that the Governance workshop had proved useful and it was also agreed that a follow up session should be arranged for January. It was suggested that the Executive Management Team would also participate in this session.
3. Chief Executive’s Report
Redundancies
The package available to staff has bee referred to the Labour Court and the Board will await the outcome of that process. The CE has also had inquiries from other staff members regarding the HSE package and whether it will be extended to the IBTS. The redundancy package on offer had been considered in detail at the Finance Committee. It was agreed that the CE would advise the DOH&C that leaving this matter to the Labour Court could be disadvantageous to future deals.
Budget
The IBTS will no longer be the contract holder for recombinant products on or after 1st January 2011. The contract holder will be SJH.
The sale of red cells has decreased by 2.5% since September. The budget has been revised to reflect a further drop in red cells of 3.5% in 2011. This will leave a gap in income of €3.13m in 2012 and €3.05m in 2013. The CE has given a presentation to management on the IBTS Strategy 2010 – 2012 and a 3 year budgetary framework. It was agreed that the Board would be fully involved in the discussions to bring forward a change programme to achieve savings.
IMB inspection
The IMB inspection at the NBC took place last week. There was one major non conformance which related to the Component/Despatch/ Issue laboratories area. Over 1,000 transactions a month go through these areas. An assessment of the work distribution has already been carried out and corrective measures are being put in place, including an IT solution to maintain a record of orders from hospitals. It was noted that an IT solution would not necessarily resolve all issues.
The Chair of the A&C expressed concern that he had not been informed about the major non conformance prior to the Board meeting. The CE undertook to inform the Chair of the Audit and Compliance Committee of any such event in future. The CE also added that the HSE were considering taking over the distribution of blood to hospitals.
Blood supply
The figures have been presented in detail to the Remuneration Committee.
4. CorkCentre
The CE has written to the HSE Chief Executive outlining the IBTS concerns associated with the CUH site. The CE has been unable to secure a meeting with the HSE Chief Executive to address these concerns.
It was noted that the Chairperson would seek a meeting with the newly appointed Chair of the HSE board to progress this.
5. Pension Scheme
The Chairperson wrote to the Minister as agreed at the last Board meeting, however, only an acknowledgement has been received to date. It was agreed that the position taken by the Board regarding the pension levy deduction was reasonable under the circumstances where the substantive issue has yet to be resolved.
6. Presentation on Bone Marrow Registry
Dr Lawlor gave a presentation on the activity of the IUBMR and the Directed Cord Bank. Dr Rebulla explained how the Cord Bank in operation in Milan worked. Dr Browne also elaborated further on the importance of the work done by the IUBMR in facilitating successful bone marrow transplant operations in SJH. The Chairperson thanked Dr Lawlor for her detailed and informative presentation and also thanked her for her dedicated service to the IBTS.
7. Minutes of the Finance Committee meeting 5th October
The minutes of 5th October were taken as read. The Finance Committee had a further meeting on 2nd November. It was noted that revenue had been weak since September and the draft budget was revised accordingly, the revision was also required because of the imminent loss of recombinant products. The business plan for 2011 had also been discussed at this meeting. The CE noted that the business plan would be discussed by the EMT at its next meeting. The CE agreed to circulate same to the Chairs of the Sub-Committees of the Board.
8. MAC Meeting 13th September
The Chairperson has asked Dr Browne to take over as Chair of the MAC and this was approved by the Board. The review process on prion filters for vCJD was discussed and it was noted that a report was due from HIQA before the end of the year. There was also some discussion on the future of the therapeutic apheresis service currently provided by the IBTS, which was to transfer to the HSE by 1st December. The CE confirmed that a meeting would be held on Monday next with the Regional Director of Operations HSE to discuss this matter.
8. Audit & Compliance Committee – 9th September
The minutes of 9th September were taken as read. The last meeting of the Committee was on 9th November. The Internal Audit Charter was approved and the audit plan for 2011 was also approved. The Chair recorded his thanks for the work done by the Internal Auditor and her assistant.
The Committee had also had an intensive session on the Quality system which they felt was very useful and gave a greater understanding of how the system worked. The Chair of the Committee also noted the contribution of the externally appointed members of the Committee.
9. Report of the Remuneration Committee
The Executive left the meeting at this stage, so that the Board could consider the report of the Remuneration Committee. The Report was approved by the Board.
10. Date of the next meeting
The next meeting of the Board will be on Tuesday 14th December at2.00pm.
Signed:______________________ Date:__________________
