23rd February 2010 - Board Minutes

Minutes of the Meeting of theBoardof the Irish Blood Transfusion Service held onTuesday 23^rd February 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

Dr Mary Cahill

Mr Mark Moran

Mr Sean Wyse

Dr Paul Browne

Mr David Keenan

Ms Ann Horan

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

The Chairperson on behalf of the Board offered condolences to Mr Sean Wyse on the recent death of his father. 

1.     Minutes of the meeting of the Board on19^th January 2010

The minutes of the meeting of the Board on 19^th January 2010were agreed and proposed by Mr David Keenan and seconded by Mr Sean Wyse.

2.     Matters arising

MUH Transfer

The transfer of service to MUH will take place on Wednesday 3^rd March.

Pension Scheme

There are no further updates at this time.

Plexus Report

A copy of the Plexus Report was received last week. Further information has been requested so there is a fuller understanding of the conclusions. It is on the agenda for the Finance Committee next week.

Tamiflu

The Tamiflu stock has been transferred to the HSE, but it is being stored at the NBC for their use.

3.     Chief Executive’s Report

Blood supply

The public response to our appeal in early January was exceptional.  Attendance for January 2010 was 10.4% higher than for January 2009. Hospital usage of red cells and platelets were down in January, with a fall of 2.5% and 6% respectively. As the blood supply was very strong, the IBTS was able to send 600 units of red cells to Haiti.  An additional 250 units are to be sent to Haiti in the next two weeks.  The Chairperson noted that this was an excellent initiative on the part of the management team and noted the “Thank You” notice placed in the national papers.

Quality

The IBTS Annual Report for 2009 was submitted to the IMB at the end of January.

HR Issues

A paper giving an overview of the change projects that are proposed or ongoing had been circulated. The current industrial relations climate will make the change agenda difficult to implement.  Initial discussions have been held with the HSE South about the implications of building a new Centre in Cork on staffing and the necessity to redeploy surplus staff from the Cork Centre. The Board congratulated the Executive on the comprehensive nature of the paper and assured them of their full support in implementing the change programmes. The original notification on the recruitment embargo will be discussed at the Finance Committee meeting next week.

CorkCentre

Correspondence with the HSE was discussed.  The development control plan for CUH is due to be completed by the Summer.  It was agreed that the Chief Executive would look at alternatives to a site on CUH Campus and revert to the Board at the March meeting with some proposals which would give control of the development to the IBTS.   

Change Programme

The costs associated with the proposed change programme were discussed.  It was noted that there would be further discussions on this at the Finance Committee and on the number of fulltime equivalents.

4.     Draft Strategic Plan

The draft strategic plan which is a distillation of the work done at the combined workshop between the Board and the Executive Management Team was discussed.  A number of suggestions were made including benchmarking standards within a European context, a more explicit statement on effectiveness and efficiency, a more ambitious statement on maintaining state of the art and the inclusion of clinicians in the section on relationships and alliances.  It was also proposed that the Governance Chart be amended to reflect the newly formed Research and Development Committee and the Remuneration Committee. 

It was suggested that the conclusion under sociological factors needed to be developed further and that the implications of a policy of price reductions and reductions in usage for IBTS income needed to be made clear.  The ongoing development of a single quality system, the implications of the pension fund liabilities, the development of a system of engagement with the DOH&C and strategies for the retention of existing donors was also stressed.  The Board also noted that the delivery of the new Cork Centre should be strengthened and the acknowledgement of morale issues among staff as the change programme gathers momentum.

5.     Donor Services – Briefing on the Blood Supply and Benchmarking

The Director of Operations gave a presentation on the blood supply, change programmes in Operations and benchmarking.  The Board thanked him for his detailed and informative presentation and it was agreed that the Plexus Report would be made available to the Board after the Finance Committee have examined it at next weeks meeting. There was a wide ranging discussion on all aspects of the presentation. It was agreed that the benchmarking data would prove invaluable at generating a sense of urgency about change as it provided evidence that change was necessary.

The Board agreed to change the order of the agenda.

7.      Minutes of the MAC meeting– 15^th December 2009

There were four issues brought to the Board’s attention.  There was some evidence of iron deficiency among donors.  This will be on the MAC agenda again after it has been considered by the National Consultants.  It was noted that this area will require further research.  The possibility of a test for vCJD has now been pushed out by a further year or two, therefore the issue of insurance and donor impact planning is not as urgent, but will still need to remain on the agenda. 

Regarding prion filters, clinical data continues to be collected in Cavan General Hospital.  There is a proposal to extend the trial to Crumlin Children’s Hospital.  Also Vox Sang has accepted a paper for publication on the clinical trial carried out in CUH with prion filters.  The MAC had also expressed concern over the lack of progress on the reconstitution of the CJD Advisory Committee by the DOH&C.  It was agreed that the Chairperson would write to the Minister stressing the need to re-establish this Committee.

9.     Sub-Committee on Research and Strategy

There was some discussion about the establishment of a temporary committee to evaluate proposals for research and strategy, separate from the main committee.  It was agreed that Mr Mark Moran would work with Dr M Cahill and Dr W Murphy to develop a specific proposal which could then be sent to the universities inviting submissions for research funding for the March Board meeting. Dr Cees Van Der Poel will be available as needed.

6.     Audit & Compliance Committee24^th November 2009

The Chairperson of the Audit & Compliance Committee thanked the members for their commitment and participation on this Committee. He also proposed that draft minutes be made available to the Board with the Board papers to avoid the excessive lapse of time.   It was agreed that the Chief Executive would revert on this.  The Chairperson thanked the Committee for their work.

10. Correspondence

Correspondence was noted.

11. Remuneration Committee

The Executive left the meeting and the Chairman of the Remuneration Committee briefed the Board on its last meeting.

12. Date of next meeting

      The next meeting of the Board of the IBTS will be held on Tuesday 23^rd March

       in the NBC at 2pm.

Signed:__________________                                    Date:_______________