TUESDAY 15 JUNE 2004 @ 2:00 PM IN THE PICASSO ROOM St CLEMENTS HOSPITAL

      Present:  Paul Taylor, Arthur White, Ray Hill, Ian Talbot (Chair), Barbara Gutowski, Julie Harrison, Julie Cracknell, Steve Cook and Annette Petty (Minutes)

Apologies:  Margarita England, Philip Bloyce, Cheryl Godber (Regional Organiser)

1.  Minutes of the last meeting

The minutes of the last meeting held on 18 May 2004 were agreed as a true and accurate record.

2.   Matters Arising
a)  Page 1. 2c - Annette to chase Mark Hillis for his nomination form as he has now moved workplaces to SMHPT on 31 May.
b) Page 2. 4d - Philip has spoken to Roger Holt in Finance regarding obtaining DOCAS information from payroll on a monthly basis.
Ian to contact Roger in an effort to resolve this long standing matter. There are two problems obtaining the information:
Data Protection and the re-charges involved. He has written to Debbie Smith at Region requesting the relevant form.
c) Page 3. 6 - The next meeting to be held on Tuesday 15 June at 2pm - reported as 13 July in May minutes.

3.  Urgent Correspondence
None

4.   Stewards Reports

a)   Arthur White - Patrick Stead
Update on last month’s report - the staff member has now been offered a job by HR working on the ward at the Waveney Admission Prevention Service (previously the Livingstone Ashford Unit). 
The member has been working there approximately one month and is ok - no other problems on site. Another member is handing in her notice as she has obtained another job.
b)  Julie Harrison - Patients Services Dept. SCH Site
Prospective new member has been given application pack due to problems with the local manager who is trying to change their job description.
Julie was given advice to sign the new member up - they then get a copy of their old JD to be re-written in work time and submitted/agreed with their manager (the JD should reflect the work being carried out now).
JD’s have 16 points none of which are met by the AfC criteria at present - it is a 2-way process which needs to be agreed by both employee and manager.
c) Barbara Gutowski - Social Care
Barbara was welcomed at the meeting as the new steward representing Social Care Staff based at Whitehouse Road. No report but attended to observe the meeting. 
Ian explained that Suffolk Healthcare is the largest health branch in the Eastern Region with over 2030 members, 80 employers and covers 3500 square miles. There are 8 officers and 22 representatives covering the area.
d) Paul Taylor - Walker Close. SMHP NHS Trust
Paul had some concerns over A4C and the financial implication to the Trust. At present there is a lot of general sickness at Walker Close and there are problems covering agency staff shifts. There is also a potential grievance with a member to be discussed with Ian after the meeting.
e) Julie Cracknell & Ray Hill - Felixstowe Hospitals. Suffolk Coastal PCT
Julie and Ray reported following the staff meeting held at 7pm on 14 June at the Bartlet chaired by Anna Selby (Chief Exec Suffolk Coastal) regarding services changes at the hospital. Three meetings have been planned (2 day and 1 night). The next meeting will take place at 7pm on Friday 18 June. The Chief Executive arrived late looking rather flustered and apparently gave no apology.
Once the meeting had started, it is proposed to reuse Felixstowe General hospital as an outreach centre and have no in-patient buildings, only MIU and clinics. MIU will be closed at night. At present there are 28 beds at the Bartlet (losing 31 beds) as they will be reused on one ward at the general and Ravenswood at Nacton. Services will be offset to the general to save money - The Trust is already facing a £4 million deficit. To determine possible future services, a survey had been sent Trust wide within it’s boundary regarding care in the community, hospital services ect, of which 94 replies have been received. To base these fundamental changes upon such low proportionate responses could be judged as being inappropriate.
In addition 25 GP beds will be lost to the Bartlet - in general, GP’s are not happy regarding the situation. It will cost £1.7 million to upgrade the Bartlet over a 4 year period.
Generally, it is felt that the Bartlet may be closing as the General is being widely promoted at present under the “Odyssey Project” (10 years ago there was a successful campaign to stop the Bartlet hospital closure). Ian advised to keep a “constant monitoring” on the situation as required and to raise the issues openly at JSC’s etc. There also seems security issues under the “Odyssey Project” may be developing.

5. AOB
a) Healthcare Conference in Glasgow
Ray’s report to be deferred to July meeting. However, at the recent Regional Health meeting at Bury St Edmunds our branch received positive feedback from Geoff Reason, saying that one of our branch officers who normally attends conference always writes a full report for the branch meeting.
b) Ratification of New Stewards
Margaret Goddard - Steward/H&S rep nomination forms were ratified at the meeting (had lapsed but now re instated).
A Felixstowe candidate (name withheld) had returned 22 nominations mainly from nursing staff. However, at present there is a significant conflict awaiting investigation and Ian advised that until the situation has been resolved satisfactorily, the proposal for Steward should be put to a vote to recommend “on hold” for the time being. The meeting voted unanimously to temporarily reject the nomination as it stands and the situation will be reviewed once resolved. Currently there are no clear guidelines within the Branch Rules to deal with such situations and the National Rules are unclear. Region is aware of the current situation and although it is a branch matter if further developments should occur they will help to deal with the matter.
c) Agenda For Change
Ian, Philip and Annette attended the conference hosted by NHS partners/UNISON at Newmarket last week. It was noted some branches in the UK have or may withdrawn from the A4C because they are experiencing so many problems with the system and breakdowns with management structures. Ian will be attending the SMHPT Communication Sub-Group on A4C on 23 June at SCH. He also attended the JSC meeting on 14 June at Waveney - which included the current deficit, issues on Doctors out of hours (Oct 04), use of locum consultants and A4C. Suffolk West PCT have some 50 staff going on the A4C panels - no-one is being rejected which is causing major shortages for training spaces from the other Trusts.
Ian will be meeting with David Edginton (Suffolk Trainer for AfC) on 16 June part of which will be to discuss the latest on A4C. In due course there will be a hotline number set up for David for A4C queries/information. It is proposed that 50 staff at a time will be trained on A4C. Dawn Jordan, Service Manager and Knowledge & Skills framework Project Lead for Suffolk Coastal will be arranging more training dates direct with David. Job matching can be carried out on block so if a job evaluation falls between 261-290 then it can be matched. There is a 38 page document on Job Analysis Questions available. Ian attended the Regional Health meeting last week in Bury St Edmunds and the issue of “backfilling posts” is all too common with some NHS employers.
It is understood this issue had also been addressed by PCT’s last Friday and again it would appear this issue remains unsatisfactorily resolved as no firm commitment has been set. In respect of volunteers required to carry out A4C, until the PCT’s/SMHPT commit to the “backfilling” issue and we know exactly what is happening, we cannot go ahead and recruit volunteers for the work. The branch has 2 volunteers for A4C at present. The latest information in Nursing Times reports that A4C has now been “put back” until 1 December.
d) Hartismere Hospital Future
Similar situation to the Bartlet with local services which it is proposed to be taken away. There are possibly 60+ beds at the hospital and it’s future has been looked at for the past year. Wendy Arbon, H&S Rep is keeping Ian up to speed on some latest developments i.e. email and newspaper clippings etc. Julie Todd, Service Manager is committed to the future of the hospital. It is proposed that patients will be transferred to Norwich/Ipswich - preset by the 20 mile radius to the hospital. However, it is widely understood, the hospital has been used for (may we say this) “bed blocking”. Ian to contact Julie Todd to discuss the situation. At the St Clements Site - Ashfield House is supposed to be closing in due course and in addition, Easton, Parham and the Activity Centre. Parham Ward is set to eventually move to the recently closed Priory Ward which is being re-furbished to accommodate the new unit under the latest redevelopment plans.
e) Branch Funding/Regional Pool
Any ideas from stewards/reps on local projects etc, in order that our branch can receive extra funding from region - please send direct to Ian by no later than 16 July (examples: recruitment/retention, supporting member participation, organisation of branch, assistance with administration etc). Proposals and figures have to be sent back to region in Chelmsford by 30 July.
f) Savings/Ways Forward
Ian reported that any reps/stewards who have PC’s at home can they order replacement ink jet cartridges through the branch please with immediate effect and empties returned via the branch. The costs through Inkcycle are much lower than Staples and many other companies. Costs are on average £8 per cartridge - 2 returned empties will also levy £5 cashback to the branch funds.
g) Regional Cuban Appeal to all Branches
Letter received from Greg Grant, Regional Secretary, asking for support for the Vedado Cancer Hospital in Havana. It was agreed that the branch donates £50 Ian to organise a cheque to be sent off.
h) Justice for Columbia - update
Affiliation letter and acknowledgment of £50 cheque received from Justice For Colombia. See affiliations Also, Ian to chase the Labour Research Department £80 joining fee acknowledgment sent by the branch recently.
i) In-house Training
Next training date Tuesday 13 July - 9.30am to 1pm, Picasso Room - “Talking to Management” facilitated by Ian and Philip (apologies from Geoff Reason). Confirmed attendance:- Ray Hill, Julie Clarke, Paul Taylor, Steve Cook, Arthur White (apologies Barbara Gutowski). Annette to send out a reminder to reps/stewards in due course.
Bullying/Harassment Training Day - 28 June, Boardroom, Suffolk House, 10am to 4pm - facilitated by Linda Durrant, Regional Women’s Officer. Confirmed attendance:- Ray, Julie C, Paul, Steve Cook, Arthur White and Barbara Gutowski. Annette will send out a reminder letter for final numbers in next few days.
j) Bill Osbourne Bursary
Letter received from Greg Grant, Regional Secretary in respect of an annual bursary made in his memory of £250 or 50% of the cost, whichever the greater, towards any member of UNISON in the Eastern Region, undertaking any programme of learning. Any member wishing to be considered for this annual bursary, please contact m.guy@unison.co.uk by no later than 30 July.
k)  Pay up for Pensions - March & Rally - 19 June
Posters have been distributed for the above rally taking place this week-end in London which UNISON is strongly supporting under the theme of “Pay up for Pensions” affecting all staff in the public, private or voluntary sector where pensions are an issue. Branches were asked to consider sponsoring members to attend.

Date/Time Next Meeting
The next meeting will take place on Tuesday 13 July at 14:00 pm in the Picasso Room, St Clements Hospital.
(following on from training in same room - “Talking to Management”). Lunch/refreshments provided am/pm as normal.
There being no further business, the meeting closed at 16:30 pm.
Any agenda items to be forwarded to Annette a week prior to the meeting.