CHESHIRE LOCAL OPTOMETRIC COMMITTEE MEETING
8th FEBRUARY 2017
THE COTTONS HOTEL, KNUTSFORD AT 7.00PM
Present
Lyndon Taylor, Chairman; Cathryn Tripp, Secretary; Hugh Churchman; Mark Simpson; Fionnuala Stott; Jane Smellie; Theresa Cox; Amy Thompsonand Chris Houghton.
Guests
David Knowles, Rupesh Bagdai, Harinder Notay, Jill Umpleby, Keith Williams, Amy Derbyshire.
In Attendance
Sandie McBennett – Administrator
- Welcome and Apologies for Absence
Resolved: That apologies received from Mr Nigel Oldburyand Mrs Helen Denton.
LT introduced Amy Derbyshire, the Programme Manager, Diabetic Retinal Screening Service, Cheshire.
2.Minutes of the Last Committee Meeting
Amendments: - Item 3 should read TC; Item 8 should read GRR Pre Cat; and the date for the Peer Review should be noted as 9th February not 7th March. Accepted.
CT proposed to confirm the minutes of the last meeting; FS seconded.
Resolved: That the minutes of the 30th November2016 meeting be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.
3.Matters Arising
Outstanding actions were discussed: -
-CT reported the email to Contractors and Performers had not yet been sent out as no dates had been arranged to date.
Action: SMcB to send CT the original email regarding MECS accreditation.
-RB reported on the concerns raised regarding the Workforce Survey; it was now possible to complete the survey without entering specific staff details.
-The router at Specsavers Wilmslow was now in place.
-The Peer Review planned for 9th February was well subscribed.
-The 29th March 2017 CET Event had been confirmed for Optoms and DO’s.
-DK had been unable to source a pharmaceutical contact.
Action: LT to check with HD if a pharmaceutical contact was still required.
Action: LT/CT to give an update of LOC services at the next CET Event.
-The domain transfer had not been completed.
-MS had added a Locum page to the website and circulated the information to all Optoms and Contractors.
Action: MS to take off the old South Cheshire Cataract/GRR details from the website.
Action: CT/SMcB bring forward to next agenda the GP Forum visits.
4.Treasurer’s Report – Nigel Oldbury
NO had sent his apologies and forwarded his report to the committee.
The LOC bank account currently held £36,000 approx. Invoice had been paid up to Dec 2016 and LOCSU had also been paid. The Levy payments were being received regularly and on time.
The year end accounts for 2016/17 would be prepared in readiness for the AGM in April; David Knowles would conduct the internal audit of the accounts.
A budget forecast for 2017 was being prepared; members were asked to notify NO if any significant changes to the current figures were envisaged.
NO asked for clarification on PECC; would PECC require further loans and were there plans to repay the existing loan? LT suggested it would not be likely that the loan would be repaid in the short term, repayment in subsequent years would depend on the high volume services.
Also, would PECC begin to pay its own expenses in the future? LT agreed PECC should be self-sustaining by paying for its own meetings and expenses and in time for Clinical Governance Performance Leads also.
LT reported there had been discussions with Mersey and Central Mersey to consider a merger. TC would meet with Andrew Willetts at Mersey. LOCSU were encouraging the mergers across the board; Cheshire and Mersey would fit in with the STP.
5. Chairman’s Report
LT reported attending a preliminary meeting about the merger of PECCs; he suggested the biggest problem would be separating and allocation of funds.
6. Secretary’s Report
CT reported Jane Branson from the New Lifestyle Service had contact the LOC. Promoting the service to the LPC. A meeting will be held in the near future. CT will report back at the next meeting.
Information about a fully funded PHD at the City of London University had been received.
Action: CT/SMcB to circulate.
Correspondence had been received regarding insurance for PECC companies.
Action: TC to complete.
Correspondence had been received regarding the new QIO submission. Practices would be asked to submit the QIO Level 1 again. All subcontractors of PECC would be required to complete it again. At the end of the submission there would be a tick box asking for permission to share the submission with NHS England.
Resolved: that the LOC agreed the QIO Level 1 submission could be shared with NHS England.
7. East Cheshire – AT/NO
GRR
Report received. AT reported on the figures for the previous 3 months from January. A few referrals had been noted outside the recommended 4 week period. One new practice had joined the service.
Post Cat
The preferred service in the East would be with Macclesfield Hospital, based on the Leighton Hospital model.
Action: AT to set up a meeting with Carol to go through pricing;LT also to attend.
8. Central Cheshire (Vale Royal and South) - CT/LT
MECS
Sign off by the auditors was expected by the end of February. Training and Accreditation would be arranged for May/June/July. A date for the OSCEs would also be set in due course.
Action: CT to inform WOPEC
OHT
Report received. CT reported there were a long list of practices not keeping to the6 week timescale. CT had chased those practices. A protocol would be put in place if no contact had been made after approximately three months. It was agreed this was a reasonable timeframe. At 6 months, the patients should be discharged. The practice would need to inform CT ifcontact cannot be made with the patient.
Action: CT to revise the OHT Guidance Document.
GRR
Nine new additional practices had joined the service.
Action: SMCB to check the number of practices.
Action: RB to forward and up to date list of those who had sent registration forms in to CT.
The Leighton Services was reported to be working well. The data had not yet been received; the IG Manager was not progressing it.
FS agreed to be the CGPL for Pre Cat. The service had gone live on 7th February.
Action: RBto take off the Guidance Document for Cataract.
Action: RB/LT to look at the drop down menu that says “E&D”it should say “F&F”; E&D only refers to OHT.
Action: Lyndon to check by manually working through
Action: All CGPLsshould do the CGPL online course.
9.Western Cheshire –MS/JS
Report and data received. A few larger multiple practices needed to be encouraged to join the service. A new section in the report showed who is responding and who is not.
Action: MS to send the template to CT.
West Cheshirepost cataract was reported to be a problem. Webstar had not been paid for approx. 2 years.
Action: MS and LT would arrange a meeting with Marie ……..
MS had been requested to send out an email with a reminder for Mediscan leaflets. Action: the referral pathway information would be emailed again.
Action: SMcB to find the email from MS.
10. Diabetic Screening – LT
LT reported the new staff had settled in well.
LT further reported the current contract would expire at the end of March; a new contract would be issued shortly. It was envisaged a modest number of changes would be included but were not yet known. The service currently had an unacceptable number of mixed up images. Fifteen different events had been recorded. No positive ID check had been completed. The practices concerned had taken notice when it had been highlighted; there had been no repeat offenders. The service would be under serious pressure to increase the response when that happens in future from April 2017. There were two options; one, to issue a breach of contract notice, although that would be a lot of work for everybody. The upgrade to XP would help in future. The second optionwas to put a significant fine on the practices. No formal KPI was in place currently. The red card and the yellow card system was used presently. The Practice would need to be made aware, not just the photographer.
LT asked the Committee to consider adding the provision to allow the fine process in the contract. CT proposed to adopt the fine process; MS seconded.
Resolved: that the Committee agreed to add the provision of imposing a fine when mixed up images had been found.
Action: LT to progress the amendment.
LT suggested the extension of clinics from the rigid 4 hour would give more flexibility in future to clear the backlog.
Slit lamp clinics had many no shows; this would be addressed when the new administration staff were in place.
All the images in last clinic had to be re-saved.
Action: LT to investigate the re-saved images.
11. CET Update– HD
HD had sent her apologies and provided an update on the CET programme.
A sponsor had not been secured for the forthcoming CET Event of 29th March; Mrs J Umpleby offered to help in finding a suitable sponsor.
A sponsor for the AGM was also required; “Healthy Lifestyle/Living” had been suggested. Mrs Umpleby agreed to help source a suitable sponsor.
12. Website
No updates required.
13. LEHN Update – RB
RB had no update from LEHN to date.
The PwLD Service was on-going and currently had 14 practices accredited. Appointments were beginning to be booked.
Action: TC to progress adding practices to the service. Check HC application was pending.
14.AOB
RB reported Pharmacy were going to do a healthy living pharmacist service. Funding had been secured to deliver training. RB has asked if an optometrist could also join the training.
NO had raised the subject of transparency of LOC expenses.
Action: SMcB to check the last AGM minutes to check what was discussed/agreed.
Action: LT to contact NO.
CT reported the LOC Constitution would be amended. Principally the rule would be one vote per person, however, they may act as a proxy also. Partnerships and Sole Traders should be afforded same rights. It would be made clear to Contractors and Performers at the AGM.
RB added any changes would need to be agreed by NHS England before it was adopted.
The amendments would be proposed at the AGM.
Committee Member Vacancies.
CT and LT reported the advice was that the LOC could appoint two people to replace the two committee members standing down. LT reported this had not been correct advice and conversely three new members could be co-optedin addition to the twelve existing members. The known casual vacancies were Rupesh Bagdai as a Performer and Helen Denton in the near future.
The LOC may choose to fill the vacancies by declaring a Casual Vacancy. The committee would be the electorate.
Action: CT to forward the quote from the constitution to SMcB.
15.Date of Next Meeting
The next meeting of the Cheshire LOC would be the Annual General Meeting to be held on: -
25th April 2017 at The Cottons Hotel, Knutsford, 6.30pm for 7.00pm start.
Observers were thanked for their attendance. Those attendees wishing to be considered for co-option were thanked for their resumes.
Keith Williams, Harinder Notay and Jill Umpleby left the meeting.
16.Closed Session
Proposal to Co-opt two new members for the rest of the committee’s term to replace Rupesh and Helen, as and when they leave. The Committee would then have a remaining option to co-opt another member.
AT proposed the LOC declare the vacancies and invite interested persons to forward their application with details how they could fulfil the roles available and any relevant skills held to the Committee. The Committee would form the electorate.
Once the applications had been received and considered by the Committee Members, then a vote would be held by email before the AGM.
Cheshire Local Optometric Committee Minutes 8th February 2017Page 1