16th October 2007 - Board minutes

Minutes of the Meeting of the Board of the Irish Blood Transfusion Service held on Tuesday 16th October at 2.00 pm in the Boardroom, National Blood Centre, James's Street, Dublin 8

Present:                                 MsMaura McGrath(Chairperson)

Dr Mary Cahill

Ms. Margaret Mullett

Dr Robert Landers

Mr David Lowe

Mr Gerry ODwyer

Dr Margaret Murray

Mr. Sean Wyse

                                                Dr Cees Van Der Poel

Mr Mark Moran

Mr David Keenan

                                                Ms Jane OBrien

Also in attendance:               Mr. Andrew Kelly, Chief Executive

Dr William Murphy, National Medical Director

Mirenda ODonovan, Secretary to theBoard

1.                 Minutes of the meeting of18^th September 2007

The Minutes of the meeting of Board of 18^th September 2007 were agreed subject to amendment and proposed by Dr Cees Van der Poel and seconded by Mr Gerry ODwyer.

2.                 Matters arising

Progesa stabilisation project

The IBTS is awaiting confirmation of an implementation date from MAK Systems

Tissue Establishment

Discussions on the transfer of tissue activities to St Vincents Hospital have made little progress.  The Director of Quality & Compliance is still awaiting confirmation from the IMB that a licence would be granted to the IBTS to operate as a tissue establishment. 

3.                 Chief Executives Report

Blood supply

Town on call has proven to be a very successful donor recruitment initiative; the latest town to participate was Carrigaline, Co Cork.

            Quality

A service level agreement has not yet been put in place with the Mater Hospital for the Heart Valve Bank. A further meeting is scheduled for next month to discuss the matter.

HR Issues

Further conciliation conferences have been held to progress the project to streamline laboratories and two more are scheduled for this week. It is hoped that after this week, they will progress on to the financial issues.

Donation Process Review

Unions did not offer the necessary support to the FETAC programme to train team leaders and donor attendants, as a result a decision was made to suspend the training programme. 

NHO

The DOH&C provided an excerpt of their legal advice on this matter.  A meeting has been scheduled for 26^th October between the IBTS, the DOH&C and the IMB to discuss the matter. 

The Board agreed that the NHO would be an agenda item for the Board meeting in November. 

Clinical Indemnity Scheme

The head of the CIS has been contacted about the issue of insurance cover for Consultants on the Executive and on the Board.  The Board expressed concern that Board members and Consultants on the Executive would be exposed to personal liability and sought clarification on this as soon as possible.  It was agreed that the simplest and most efficient way to do this was to extend the scope of the scheme to provide the necessary cover.  It has been previously extended to cover ethics committees and clinical trials.

Traceability

The IBTS acts as blood bank for a number of hospitals and where this is so, responsibility for traceability of all products rests with the IBTS.  The IBTS is putting in place a bag and tag system which will enable the IBTS to trace the products it issues to these hospitals.  This project is ongoing.

Transfer of blood

The pilot transfer of blood from SMOH to CUH commenced recently and it is intended that a similar arrangement will be put in place with SI/VI to CUH.

Legal matters

The CE briefed the Board on two cases.

4.                 Finance Committee (item 5 on the agenda)

The Finance Committee met on 27^th June and considered cost savings and the cost increase in the price of blood.   Request for a 4% budget increase seemed likely. The Committee also considered the capital programme for the next 3 years.

5.                 Presentation on the evaluation of NAT technology (item 4 on the agenda)

Dr Joan ORiordan made a presentation to the Board on the evaluation of single donor NAT technology carried out by the IBTS.  The Board thanked Dr ORiordan for her informative and detailed presentation.

6.                 Audit Committee

The audit committee met on 14^th June.  The IT Risk Register has been completed.   There was also some discussion about an audit and compliance committee and the compliance/governance structure at Board level.  The Executive had prepared an initial paper for the September Audit Committee meeting. The Chairman of the Audit Committee said that if it is agreed to put in place an Audit and Compliance Committee then the proposal will come to the Board for sign-off.

7.                 CorkCentre

The Board took dedicated time on this issue as it is a continued priority.  The Executive and the Secretary to the Board were not present for this discussion.   

8.                 Date of next meeting

The next meeting of the Board will be held in the Cork Centre on Tuesday 20^th November 2007.

Signed: __________________                                               Date:_______________