could not be persuaded to give up the trophy and decided to keep it for another year. Everyone else had better start practising.
Organisational Changes
Glasgow Primary Care Trust has now appointed a Director of Pharmacy. The successful candidate was Mr David Thomson, previously the Director of Primary Care Services with Boots. (If that was not his exact title, then
it was something very similar.) North Glasgow University Hospitals NHST has proposed a six-divisional structure with each division having a General Manager and a Chairman of Division. The structure for the pharmacy management is still under discussion. The merger of the pharmacy services in Falkirk and Stirling Royal Infirmaries is progressing. The position of Trust Chief Pharmacist is to be decided in the near future.
Hairmyres Hospital is currently investigating the criteria used there for the pharmacist being called out, and are reviewing their Saturday rota. Pharmacy staff at Stonehouse Hospital will gradually transfer to Hairmyres with the proposed closure of Stonehouse to acute admissions.
Staffing
Inverclyde Royal Hospital are still awaiting funding from Argyll and Clyde Health Board for a D grade oncology post, and fear it might not be forthcoming if efficiency savings are not met. The Victoria Infirmary has advertised an E grade job share post. Stirling Royal Infirmary
currently have a B grade vacancy. The Vale of Leven Hospital currently has a D grade aseptic dispensing post vacant. Congratulations to Scott Nicol, who has been appointed to the Chief Pharmacist post at the Vale, and takes up his post in October. The two vacancies at Monklands Hospital have been filled. Interestingly, newly appointed staff there are being given contracts with Whitley Council terms and conditions, rather than Trust contracts.
The Millennium Holiday
It looks extremely likely that payment of three times basic hourly rate and a day in lieu will be made for working over the holiday. Staff may opt to alter this to twice the normal basic hourly rate and two days in lieu, or the normal basic rate and three days in lieu. Staff have 15 months to take this leave. To qualify, staff must be working between 11pm 31.12.99 and 11am 1.1.2000. Forth Valley Primary Care Trust have stated that no decision has been made about 31.12.99 being a public holiday in the NHS in Scotland! North Glasgow and other Trusts have already announced that it is to be a holiday.
Pay
Some confusion was caused by the M.S.F. NHS Fax no 68 dated 29th July, which stated that pharmacists were carrying out group workplace ballots. I was under the impression that we were supposed to be gauging opinion, rather
than holding a formal (or informal) ballot.
The majority of members feel that the offer to the lower grades is an improvement .... but still does not constitute a credible alternative to salaries offered by community pharmacy. The point has been made that newly qualified pharmacists can go into community pharmacy and immediately earn as much as a D grade. The offer to higher grades has not met with particular favour either, with comments such as "derisory" being common. Pay scales still compare unfavourably with hospital manager scales. In addition to being unlikely to aid recruitment to any great extent, it is felt that it may result in the loss of some of the more experienced senior staff who now feel undervalued. Many members just want paid now, and have expressed that sentiment to me quite forcefully.
An update on the process was given to me in a telephone conversation with Ron Pate and the information has been sent to accredited reps. A common perception is that nothing is happening. The lack of any information coming out centrally is not helpful, and is not appreciated by members in the West of Scotland.
Scottish NHS Advisory Committee 1.9.99
I attended the above committee meeting which was addressed by the National Secretary, Roger Kline. He spoke on the pay round, "Agenda for Change" and recruitment.
· Agenda for Change is being discussed with the Government and is all about a return to a national pay uplift based on three pay spines built around a national job evaluation scheme. The working party for this scheme is already in existence. There will be two pay review bodies (PRBs) and a negotiating forum. Doctors and dentists will be in one PRB, and other professions, including nurses, will be in the second. M.S.F. is hoping to get most if not all of the professional groups it covers into the second PRB. It is expected that a preliminary announcement on the composition of the second PRB will be made by the Department of Health (DoH) on September 28/29.
· There has been a steady growth in members in the NHS over the last 5 years. However, he made the point that the potential membership is now greater than it was 5 years ago, and the gap between the number of members that M.S.F. has and the number of possible members is greater than ever before.
· The Scottish Executive has stated that they will not seek to set up any alternative pay structure in Scotland during the life of this government.
· M.S.F. have stated that it is inevitable that a Scottish perspective will be required on some issues, and that where there is clearly a Scottish dimension to a topic, a Scottish response will be formulated.
The meeting was also informed that a partnership template had been issued by the Scottish Executive at the end of July. Every Trust is required to set up a partnership forum and have an agreement in place by October. It has been recognised that the unions are a major stakeholder in the NHS and the chart contained in the document will no doubt be very important in the months and years ahead. All senior reps are being urged to read the model and become conversant with and able to quote from the document. The possibility of a seminar in Scotland on this topic for senior reps was also mentioned. The Scottish Partnership Forum is looking to extend and revamp the Organisational Change Policy by the end of the year.
It was reported that Susan Deacon, the Health Minister of the Scottish Executive, had pointed out to the press that the latest scandal over cervical smear tests in the East of Scotland concerned the administration of the recall procedures and had nothing to do with the sampling or processing of results. She will also be happy to have an M.S.F. representative sitting as part of the public enquiry into the scandal, which affected Fife and Forth Valley Health Boards.
Advice
I have given advice on on-call, temporary contracts, a disciplinary hearing, regrading and salary related problems.
Sunday Herald Article
I am indebted to the Professional Secretary for his help in composing a letter to the above newspaper. The reply was to counter some extremely erroneous and derogatory statements about pharmacy made in an article in the paper. The writer obviously does not like pharmacy and is using this platform to vent his feelings. The Trust involved has also made representations to the author, which have, as far as I know, been completely ignored so far.
Membership Matters
I have sent out quite a few membership forms over the past couple of months, and most have been completed, returned and forwarded to the membership department at the Glasgow Regional Office.
I was extremely disappointed to find out that the changes made by the Group Secretary to the membership list sent out earlier this year had not been implemented. I have spoken with the Section General Secretary and been assured that the new copy which I have sent him will be dealt with by a named individual at Head Office to ensure it is processed. Hopefully, this will ensure that the accuracy of the membership database for the Guild starts to improve. I have asked Gerry to let me know when the changes have been actioned and then I shall be contacting all reps to try and pick up any remaining errors.
Glasgow & West of Scotland Group Meetings Syllabus
The syllabus for 1999-2000 Group meetings is now available. Graham Montgomerie, the Group Secretary, will be sending supplies to accredited reps. If you do not receive a copy of the syllabus, please call either Graham or myself, and we will ensure you get a copy.
COLIN RODDEN 5 September 1999