WEST MIDLANDS AMBULANCE SERVICE NHS TRUST COVENTRY & WARWICKSHIRE LOCALITY Locality Partnership Forum Minutes of the meeting held on 26 th May 2011 Present: H Patel (HP) General Manager S Thompson (ST) Coventry Station Representative A Watkins (AW) Area Manager - North P Head (PH) Acting Area Manager Central I Oxford (IO) Coventry Station Rep S Hampson (SH) EOC Representative M Farthing (MF) Infection Control Lead V Hassall (VH) Head of Human Resources In attendance: S Dhesi (SD) J Carroll (JC) Minute Areas Discussed HR Assistant & Minute Secretary Staffordshire Representative Action 1. Apologies: S Bhambra (SKB) Human Resource Manager J Smallwood (JS) Dordon Station Representative P Gibbs (PG) Leamington Station Representative M Scott (MS) Acting Area Manager- South A Gibson (AG) Head of EOC P Baker (PB) Logistics Manager B Dwyer (BD) Warwick Station Representative D Dixon (DD) Divisional Manager PTS M Kimberley (MK) Nuneaton Station Representative P Spinks (PS) Stratford Station Representative A Parfrey (AP) Health, Risk & Governance Manager 2. Minutes of the last Meeting 10 March 2011 Minutes of the previous meeting were agreed as an accurate record and signed by the Chairman. 3. 3.1 3.2 Matters arising Monitors AW stated that the vehicles that had been identified to have the issue had now been sorted. Issues with UHCW HP had spoken with P Devlin. UHCW have had issues with the SHA regarding their handovers. ST informed the group that the hospital desk at MP were those that received the clear signal and not Tollgate EOC. 1
SH noted that this was causing issues as crews were not actually available at the time of this signal being sent to the Hospital Desk. This impacted on availability, turnaround times. There was general discussion regarding the lack of communication between the hospital desk and the EOC. HP stated that this had been noted at station meetings and with Adrian Gibson. 3.3 Coventry Station estates PH informed the group that R Alexander had written up the proposal and was ready to go forward for the cycle stand. HP requested that this be forwarded for consideration. PH ST stated that it had been mentioned that Coventry station would get a drinks machine shortly. HP informed the group that this was the case. The machine would charge for coffee however would not charge for water. AW stated that this was likely to happen in Nuneaton too. It was also noted that the locker situation at Coventry station had been sorted. 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 Stratford rota HP informed the group that the RRV rota was now split from the main rota, therefore eliminating the issues that had previously occurred. Stryker-Chair VH stated that 150 chairs had been ordered by the Trust. Annual leave PH stated that there were a few members of staff whose start dates were incorrect on the system which was believed to have happened from outside of the division. It seemed that the hours were random and not in relation to any NHS service. No action required. Electronic timesheets PB to pick up today with B Thurston. P Baker It was noted that the logging of incidental overtime was an issue as the Payroll department were allowing it in Coventry and the system was working, however they will not allow it in Nuneaton. 2
HP stated that the IT element of the electronic timesheets had not yet been sorted and the responsibility would potentially be with Scheduling. 3.8 HCRT ST stated that HCRT was back under the control of C&W. There was general discussion regarding the referrals process and issues with performance in this area. It was noted that that D Morton had been informed if there were any gaps then ECA s would cover the job. ST stated that A Ford had developed a HCRT deployment programme which was used in BBC which would need to consider C&W. 3.9 3.10 3.11 3.12 Form 12 - Sudden Death AW informed the group that B Overton had produced an information pack that all employees at Dordon. VH had spoken with J Vernon and asked for contact to be made with AW regarding this. Missed Meal Breaks HP stated that the forms were now being faxed across. AW acknowledged the usefulness of this method. Release for Rep s HP had spoken with PB and confirmed that this should happen where possible. Cameras on vehicles ST stated that people had been informed that the cameras are working, however not recording. For information. 4. Stand by s ST raised concerns that Coventry crews had been asked to standby at Foleshill fire station after 2200hrs. When the crews challenged this as fire stations are not used after 2200 hrs they were told to roam around the area. ST stated that he had spoken with B Thurston regarding the difficulties with stand by points. HP added that they were still looking at fire stations in Coventry and awaiting the Commanders views. It was also noted that rural areas needed to be looked at. PH highlighted the potential use of the primary care centres in Coventry as an option. PH 3
There was also general discussion regarding the use of portakabins and the issues around the use of the Foleshill Gas Club. As this has been an ongoing issue for 2 years ST stated he would escalate this to RPF. 5. Update on response times ST asked management for an update. HP stated that a recovery plan had been put together as we did not achieve the performance at the end of April 2011. We had a good start in May however performance declined throughout the month. HP highlighted the need to push performance and crews making themselves available quicker and will raise it at meeting with J Brown. H Patel 7. Communications There was discussion regarding the issues with email communication to the EOC in Staffordshire as the emails sent from C&W to Staffs would bounce back. It was noted that there were problems with the servers which were expected to change as the hope was to move everyone to one server. 8. Review of LPF meeting schedule ST noted that a more streamlined RPF was being agreed. It had been noted that if something discussed at LPF had not been agreed or could not be agreed, then it would be referred to the next RPF for discussion. For this reason ST requested that LPF should be monthly. HP stated that the monthly dates had been agreed (stated at the end of the minutes). HP noted that a decision would be made nearer to the time regarding the December LPF. 9. Clinical Update inc. Clinical Supervision MF informed the group that 3 CTM teams would be running from 4 th July 2011. The Team training will commence on 4 th July 2011 and the Mentors course was ye to be confirmed. It was noted that one of the CTM s at Coventry would be soon moving to West Mercia. There were still 3 CTM vacancies awaiting approval. The CTM rota would be 7-7 and road staff would be released to work with CTM s working 1:1 or supernumerary where appropriate. At the moment there would be 4 CTM s at each of the following stations; Warwick, Nuneaton and Coventry. 4
MF stated that currently a member of staff on light duties was helping with a CPI and ECS audit which was working well. MF informed the group the he was 100% confident that the CTM role would work well in the Division. 10. Scheduling HP informed the group that the Division was still short of staff within the Scheduling department. ST stated that B Thurston had noted at RPF that there should not be any restrictions on finances. HP noted that he would raise at his review today. H Patel 11. Make Ready HP stated that make ready and rota s went hand in hand. HP had asked ST to identify Representatives in the Division for working groups to be set up. HP stated that the existing rosters were inappropriate to match activity and affected performance and there was a need to stagger the start times. HP also noted that he was still waiting for information on Process Evolution to determine the demand and resource needs. ST to discuss working groups with Representatives. S Thompson 12. Rota s Rota s was discussed in Agenda item 11. 13. Care Coordination project plan HP reinforced the utilisation of the Out of Hours (OOH) hub in Leamington Spa. It was noted that an algorithm had been established for acute and non-acute patients. It was noted that this would be a trial commencing June 2011. G Lewis has confirmed that governance issues had been looked at and the feedback from the usage had been good. 14. Issues to be sent to Regional Partnership Forum (RPF) ST stated that he would like the Gas club portakabin issue to be taken forward to RPF. VH to take forward. V Hassall 15. Health & Safety issues PH highlighted issues with the fire exit in the Rugby Scheduling 5
department and the Scheduling department door being shut. AP had previously stated that the existing fire exits were still adequate for the size of the station. 16. 16.1 16.2 16.3 Update on regional work streams PTS Meal Breaks (MB) It was highlighted that there had been some work undertaken regarding the regionalisation of the PTS MB Policy, this also included general discussion regarding an increase for missed meal breaks for PTS staff. ST stated that this had not been signed off yet as the policy needed to be looked at further. Change Management ST stated that he had requested a meeting with B Thurston regarding the remaining people that were affected by the change management process. Area Managers ST asked how long the Area Manager post would remain in designate form. VH stated that this was normally until all of the preemployment checks had been received and satisfactory to the Trust and once that was completed the terms and conditions of employment would be sent out. There was also general discussion regarding the job evaluation process. 16.4 Group 2 Medical Standards ST informed the group that there were still ongoing discussions regarding group 2 standards. VH gave some background regarding group 2 standards, highlighting that the issue was brought to light when the HCRT came in. This indicated to the Trust that different Occupational Health providers were assessing against different standards (either group 1 or group 2). It was noted that PTH was assessing against group 1 however the Trust thought that they were assessing against group 2 which resulted in the process having to be changed so that all drivers are group 2 assessed. There was general discussion regarding the use of group 2 standards for PTS staff and Staff Side s opinion that each case should be looked at on an individual basis. VH stated that a specification was being worked on for all of the Trust s Occupational Health providers to ensure a consistent approach. 17. 17.1 Any other business Future recruitment PH queried whether there was a workforce plan in place for future recruitment to which VH stated that there was not and knew that 6
they had agreed to recruit 10 people that were from university. 17.2 Channel 38 PH stated that following the Bronze commander training it was highlighted whether it was possible to change channels to channel 38 to manage incidences that were 5 or below for good practice measures, rather than going through the incident report desk. SH will try it to see if it works and report back to the group. S Hampson 17.3 PDR s & Induction It was highlighted that the EOC staff that had moved last November had not had their PDR s which were now due. SH also noted that the EOC staff had not been inducted and as a result did not know who to contact for Occupational Health etc. VH to email A Gibson regarding this. V Hassall Dates and times of next meetings 2011 24 June 2011 at Nuneaton 29 July 2011 at Stratford 26 August 2011 at Nuneaton 30 September 2011 at Stratford 28 October 2011 at Nuneaton 25 November 2011 at Stratford 19 December at Nuneaton Chairperson: Date:. 7