20th April 2010 - Board minutes

Minutes of the Meeting of theBoardof the Irish Blood Transfusion Service held onTuesday 20th April 2010at2.00pmin theBoardroom, National Blood Centre, James’s Street,Dublin8.

 

Present:                                 Ms. Katharine Bulbulia (Chairperson)

                                                Mr. David Lowe 

Ms. Marie Keane

Ms. Jane O’Brien

MrMark Moran

MrSean Wyse

DrPaulBrowne

Mr David Keenan

Ms Ann Horan

Dr Mary Cahill

 

Apologies:                              Ms Sinead Ni Mhaille

 

Also in attendance:               Mr. Andrew Kelly, Chief Executive

Dr. William Murphy, Medical & Scientific Director

Ms Mirenda O’Donovan, Secretary to theBoard

 

  1. Minutes of the Meeting of the Board onTuesday 23rd March 2010

The Minutes of the meeting of the Board on Tuesday 23rd March were agreed subject to amendment.  Proposed by Mr David Lowe and seconded by Mr Mark Moran.

  1. Matters arising

 

Sub-Committee on Research & Strategy

The relevant university personnel have been written to and meetings have already been arranged with some universities and some have yet to be agreed.  This round of discussions should be completed in time to report back to the Board in May on progress.

vCJD

HIQA recently indicated that they would be looking for two nominees from the IBTS for a Committee on vCJD.  However, no correspondence requesting same has yet been received. 

Donor Awards Ceremony Carlow

The Chairperson expressed thanks to the Donor Services staff on behalf of the Board for the success of the Donor Awards Ceremony in Carlow recently.

  1. Chief Executive’s Report

Donation Process Review

It was noted that a number of further adjustments would be required in clinic frequency and duration to reach the target of 1.5 donors per WTE.

BSMS

There has been a positive response from the hospitals to the training on this system and 90% have now agreed to participate. 

Finance

Income is showing a positive variance, due primarily to the substantial increase in the sale of blood products. 

SOPs

Current status of National SOPs 678 – target of 815.

Transport review

The proposed Croke Park agreement appears to have taken outsourcing off the agenda, however it remains uncertain if the agreement will be accepted by the unions.  It is still on the IBTS agenda in relation to the transport review. 

Crossmatch services inCork

The totality of services, including crossmatch and referencing services currently provided from the Cork Centre is to be discussed with HSE South.  It was agreed that the haematologists that would be delivering the reconfigured service would be included in the consultation.

Grouping Laboratory

The consolidation of grouping at the NBC will proceed on schedule on 1st July.

Resources

The reconciliation on resourcing has been completed.  Maternity cover in a number of instances needs to be examined.

ISO15189 Accreditation

 It was agreed by the EMT to proceed with accreditation in the National Blood Centre first and then to move on to the Cork Centre.  While accreditation was not being sought for both centres at the same time, it would be pursued for both sites.

CorkCentre

The CE met the design team appointed to develop the CUH development control plan.  The IBTS has also continued to look at alternative sites.  Three possible locations have been identified on the CUH site, only one of which is a green site.  It was agreed that the Cork Centre would be a separate item on the agenda for the Board in future. 

Pension Scheme

Further correspondence has been received from the DOH&C today, however there has been no progress to resolve the ongoing funding issues with the pension scheme.  It was noted that the Trustees are meeting this Friday and the Board agreed to defer any decision until after the Trustees have met.  The Board also requested a consolidated paper on the pension scheme outlining all of the issues and steps taken to date, including correspondence for consideration at its next meeting.  It was agreed that this would also be a separate item on the agenda.

Legal Case

The CE briefed the Board on the outcome of a legal case.

The reformatted Chief Executive’s report was noted by the Board.

  1. Draft Strategic Plan

 

The draft Strategic Plan 2010 – 2012 was discussed by the Board.  There were a number of proposed amendments and additions to the text.  It was agreed that these changes would be made and the plan would go ahead for publication.

  1. Minutes of the Audit & Compliance Committee - 9th February 2010

The Chairman of the A&C Committee also presented the Committee’s Annual Report for 2009.  He thanked his colleagues on the Committee for their time and effort, particularly the two external experts.  The key areas of activity in 2009 were oversight of the Financial Controls and embedding the Internal Audit function, review of the organisational and IT risk registers and quality assurance.  A review of quality issues has recently been agreed with a view to reporting to the Board in September.  It was agreed that the Chairman of the Committee would discuss the oversight of the clinical risk register with the Chairperson of the MAC. 

  1. MAC Minutes- 23rd February 2010

The introduction of Fibrinogen concentrate was discussed.  The vacancy on the MAC and the impact this has on reaching a quorum was also discussed.  It was noted that there has been some progress made on this and it is expected that confirmation will be received shortly.  A presentation was made on the platelets usage report and an initial discussion took place.  Further discussion on the issues raised will take place at the next MAC.  The Chairperson of the MAC asked for the report to be circulated to the Board for their input at the next meeting.

The Executive left the meeting at this point.

  1. Date of next meeting

 

The next meeting of the Board will take place on Tuesday 18th May at the National Blood Centre at 2pm.

Signed: _____________________                                   Date:______________