Since the last Council meeting, there will have been one meeting of the local Group - the Quiz Night.
Organisational Changes
The reorganisation within Forth Valley Acute Hospitals NHS Trust continues. Laura McIver of Stirling Royal Infirmary has been appointed as the Chief Pharmacist. In Lanarkshire, Christine Gilmour has been appointed to the post of Chief Pharmacist of Lanarkshire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust. It is unlikely that the post of pharmacy manager at Law will be advertised until they move into the new hospital in about 15 months time. Peter Jones is expected to remain acting head until then. The new Law Hospital has no central pharmacy store or dispensary. Instead, there are 9 workstations on wards, with a further 6 used for production of TPN and re-packing purposes. The mechanics of this type of organisation have still to be completely teased out. In North Glasgow University Hospitals NHS Trust, the reorganisation has created a post of Service Manager for Pharmacy and PAMs. This has been advertised internally.
Staffing
Discussions are underway at the South Glasgow University Hospitals NHS Trust regarding the creation of a deputy pharmacy manager post. Two Basic grade posts there should be filled by the end of the month. There are still two similar vacancies at Stirling Royal Infirmary to be filled. Forth Valley Primary Care Trust has one D grade vacancy. Margaret Ryan has moved to Lomond & Argyll Primary Care Trust as a Prescribing Adviser for LHCCs. Rhona Dykes has moved to the Vale of Leven Hospital. This leaves a D grade post vacant at Gartnavel Royal Hospital. There is also a C grade vacancy at Woodilee Hospital. The clinical post at Leverndale Hospital has been replaced but at a C grade rather than the D grade it was previously.
The Millennium Holiday
The interpretation of the Millennium Agreement was finally worked out just before Christmas and an explanatory document circulated throughout the Scotland West District. Copies were sent to Jim and Don for circulation to the North and East of Scotland. I have had a considerable number of calls from members wanting to confirm their interpretation of what they were due for working over the period and the odd call from pharmacy management wanting the same.
Pay
I have had several calls about the pay award over the past month or so. The Advance letter in Scotland was not issued until 13th December and so it was very unhelpful for the fax service to be informing all members that the increase and back pay should be paid in December. In addition, I have been notified of a number of pharmacists (at least 8 in the West of Scotland) who fall into the category whereby they do not receive the percentage increase they were under the impression they were entitled to. I refer to those members graded B, C or D with discretionary points who happen to be at the top of their scales. Since the increases are worked out on spine points and not grades (unlike the majority of the press releases and general information) those individuals on the discretionary point range of spine points receive the percentage increase for the grade above i.e. C, D and E respectively. This has caused a considerable degree of anger amongst the affected staff. It would be useful if, in any future negotiations where differential awards are contemplated, consideration would be given to ensuring members had accurate information from the Guild, however misleading the information from management.
I have written to the Director of HR of the NHSiS pointing out the "30 days/30 hours" error in the advance letter and asking for it to be reissued or at least to have a letter of correction issued to all recipients of the original letter. I am awaiting a reply. Most Trusts should be in a position to pay the increase and arrears in January, but I have been informed that there are problems in some trusts.
Scottish NHS Advisory Committee 12.1.2000
I attended the above committee meeting where one of the new Assistant Regional Officers, Hugh Scullion, was introduced to those members of the committee who did not know him. The other new ARO, Fiona Farmer, was not present. The committee was informed of a dispute in the West Midlands, where officers have been instructed to provide Head Office with a weekly report of what time they are spending on organising and recruiting. The Officers Committee have said this is unacceptable and autocratic. Paul Talbot, NS, is to attend the March 8th meeting to discuss the new union (the new official term for the merger with the AEEU). This is to be set upon the basis of complete equity, with an MSF section and an AEEU section, if accepted by both conferences. This structure would exist until a new joint rule book could be compiled - probably a couple of years.
On pay nationally, the Minister would like to talk to the unions about a three year pay deal. There are differing views on whether this includes the 1999 as one of the years.
The Scottish Executive has launched an Occupational Health and Safety document which is available on the internet at www.scotland.gov.uk/library2/doc08/shwm-00.htm
A consultative document on PFI and PPP schemes is about to be issued. It will say that any employee will transfer to any consortium under no detriment. New staff working in NHS facilities will be on NHS terms and conditions. An amendment in the legislation is required to allow the ability to stay with the NHS pension scheme.
The Partnership Information Network (PIN) Board has a short term programme to issue models for policies such as disciplinary, dissatisfaction, equal opportunities and harassment amongst others. In the longer term, they intend to issue advice on staff governance. No decisions will be made in the NHSiS without involving the staff groups within the NHSiS. Staff governance will have the same level of importance as clinical and financial governance, and management competencies will be assessed by the response to the models produced by the PIN Board.
By the end of October, 35% of Trusts and Health Boards had set up partnership forums. The Scottish Partnership Forum (SPF) has arranged for a series of visits to every Health Board over the next 12 months to see what has actually been done. The team will consist of three managers and three trade union representatives. Michael Fuller, as Joint Chair of the SPF will be one of the three trade union members at all of the visits. The first visit will be next month to Lanarkshire.
The recommendation has been put to the SPF that the Organisational Change Policy used for Trust reorganisation should be retained as a general Organisational Change Policy, since there are difficulties in covering all such changes with different documents.
The next HR Conference is to be held in Dunblane on 6th / 7th April 2000. Trusts have been informed that 50% of their delegation to the conference should be trade union representatives.
An Evaluation Committee is looking at partnership monitoring techniques, and by the middle of this year, the model they produce will force all managers to consider how their partnership set up is working.
The Priorities and Planning Guidance document normally issued in June each year will not be appearing this year. Instead, the Minister is to revamp the whole process. MEL(1999)89 (available at www.show.scot.nhs.uk/dtc) instructs Health Boards and Trusts on what to include in their Health Improvement Plans (HIPs) and Trust Implementation Plans (TIPs). There are several telling quotes within the document.
"Health Boards, Trusts and their planning partners will wish to take account of ...(partnership documents)...in order to: Work in partnership with the people who deliver health and social care".
"It is vitally important that staff and the wider public are at the heart of the decision making process."
"Formal consultation about proposals at a later stage is no longer sufficient. Health Board and Trusts must ensure effective means of communication to engage the public and staff in modernisation initiatives from the outset."
As the meeting was the Annual General Meeting of the Committee, elections were held for the Chair and Secretary. Bill Goudie (North Glasgow) was elected Chair and Roddy Kelly (Yorkhill) Secretary. Advice I have given advice mainly on millennium and other pay matters, although there were also a couple of other discussions on gradings. There was also some information on the unsocial hours agreement sought and aupplied.
Membership Matters
I have not had time to do anything with the membership database since I received it, but hope to have some time within the next month or so to ask for assistance in the corrections.
Learning Together
The new "Strategy for Education, Training and Lifelong Learning for all staff in the National Health Service in Scotland" was launched at the Partnership Conference in Edinburgh on December 3rd. I was concerned that amongst the several references to pharmacists within the document was one to the effect that there were going to be discussions "with representatives from the pharmacy profession" on
" - modernising the grading structure
- career options for pharmacists leaders to enable them to remain in clinical practice."
I have written to the Director of HR for the NHSiS asking for information on this statement and pointing out that these issues are being considered at Pharmaceutical Whitley Council. I am awaiting a reply. I have circulated all members of Education and Science Committee and all accredited reps within Scotland West with a copy of the document. It can also be obtained from the Scottish Executive web site at www.scotland.gov.uk/learningtogether/.
Welcome to Organising & Recruiting in the NHS - MSF Resource Pack
I received a copy of the above pack from my local MSF RO. I was interested to note that in the section entitled 'Workplace Organisation - Getting Started' there is a list of MSF Health Service Professionals which includes pharmacy technicians but not pharmacists. I contacted Ann Angiolini in Roger Klines office who told me that the list was put together by an officer, and distributed to all ROs with NHS responsibilities. She would inform Roger of this omission. As this was being used for pathology groups first, there might possibly be future reprints. Hopefully with us included. There should not be any confusion within your trust, as the senior MSF representative should already be aware of this error.
Colin Rodden
26 January 2000