British Geriatrics Society - Scotland

Welcome to the spring newsletter, although the season remains truly wintery for many of us. This year promises much focus on our speciality. With that in mind I ask you to keep June 2 free in your diaries for a meeting in Glasgow. Also the Change Fund issues are very much on the front burner for many of us, see article from Anne Hendry below. As mentioned in the last newsletter I am trying to compile an email directory for our Scottish branch members, so if you have not sent me your details please do, so we can finally have a facility to communicate rapidly with members on important issues.

Finally, I am delighted to have in this newsletter an unusual article from Willie Primrose regarding his recent trip to Africa – thought for us all contained in his article!

The Scottish Government has now published its Reshaping Care for Older People policy and a ten year programme for change. This aims to optimise independence and wellbeing for older people and help older people live well at home or in a homely setting.

Health and social care partnerships, along with their voluntary and independent sector partners, have been outlining how they will invest their share of the Reshaping Care Change Fund of £70m for 2011/12.  Pending approval, this fund will continue for three further years to lever changes in existing partnership budgets in order to achieve sustained investment in community based services and supports for older people.

I hope you have already been involved in discussions with your local health and care partnerships about their Change Plans.  At this stage most partnerships have submitted fairly high level plans. It is important that clinicians are fully engaged as the Partnerships develop more detailed local plans to ensure specialist support extends further upstream and into community settings to support primary and community teams.

The Joint Improvement Team (JIT) is establishing an Improvement Network to support all 32 partnerships to realise their Reshaping Care ambitions. This is a timely opportunity to build on the learning and accelerate the progress of the Long Term Conditions and Mental Health Collaboratives which conclude at the end of March. It provides a forum for testing and spreading emerging Efficiency and Productivity benefits in both hospital and community settings and to drive progress on the 2011/12 HEAT target for over 75 emergency bed days: acknowledged as pivotal for releasing resources to sustain future community based services.

The Improvement Network is a collaboration between JIT, the Quality and Efficiency Support Team (previously IST) and the Scottish Community Care Benchmarking Network. It will engage with a range of national partners and practitioner communities including BGS Scotland. The inaugural Network event is on April 1st at Herriot Watt University. Please contact your local CHP older people’s lead if you would like to attend.

With NES and the Scottish Association of Community Hospitals, we are planning a future networking event with a focus on the clinical service model in community settings. I’ll be in touch with BGS Council and Primary Care leads group about this in the coming weeks.

Lots more Reshaping Care information in future newsletters - and from clicking on the JIT Reshaping Care web site link.

Please contact me on Anne.Hendry@lanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk or 07734290106 if you have any questions or comments meantime.

I look forward to meeting up at a future Reshaping Care event.

Over recent years the Scottish BGS has had representation on the National Care Home Development Group.  The group’s membership is taken mainly from COSLA (Convention of Scottish Local Authorities), the Scottish Government, the Care Commission and Scottish Care (representing the Care Home sector).  There is scant health representation, the BGS voice being a lone clinician.  The group has several remits and with the “Reshaping Care” agenda sees an increasing role.  It has had key responsibilities for advising and implementing the National Care Home Contract and its ongoing review, but considers it may have a wider role in the coming years.  Recent agenda items have included:

• The care home inspection regime following the morphing of the Care Commission into SCSWIS (Social Care & Social Work Improvement Scotland).

• Piloting of a care home staffing model – matching dependency, skill mix etc.

• Reviewing equipment policy in care homes.

• Commenting on the Self Directed Support Bill (out for consultation).

Future activities may move the group to advise on model contracts for “care at home” and “housing support” - clearly a significant overlap with the Joint Improvement Team work programme.

This is an interesting committee to support, with a clinical perspective being a much needed antidote to wishful thinking and political correctness. Willie Primrose has represented us on this group and BGS council is discussing ways to maintain involvement. Apart from direct contributions to important debates on aspects of policy, there is the opportunity to meet others at a fairly senior level from Care Home, Social Work or Scottish Government backgrounds.

Congratulations to Lynsey Fielden, who won the best Clinical Effectiveness Poster at the national BGS autumn meeting - Flying after Stroke and TIA: A Survey of Physicians, Airlines and Travel Insurance Companies.

The council of BGS (Scotland) believes that there is a lot at stake for the specialty in the context of the current political agenda around “Re-shaping Care for Older People” in Scotland. Therefore, at relatively short notice, a one day symposium titled “Specialist Geriatric Medicine in the Community” is being planned for Thursday 2nd June at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, Glasgow. It is intended that the symposium will provide the opportunity to reflect on the rationale for development of specialist Geriatric Medicine services in the community, explore the current evidence base and potential future service models and consider the training and development needs of specialist teams. The executive council of BGS (Scotland) anticipates final confirmation of the event with further details being available within the next two weeks.  Meantime you are asked to keep this date in your diary.

Back in 2008 the idea of working abroad began to take shape, and the timing of early in 2010 looked good, with my wife Dorothy coming out of a GP partnership, so for a time would be a “free agent.” The fact that we were to miss most of the worst winter in 50 years was serendipity, though we [or actually it was I] did burn out the clutch in a snow drift before heading south!