Minutes of the ACTA Business Meeting.
Churchill College, Cambridge, Friday 23rd June 2006.
ACTION
ACTA Committee
Dr F Gibson [FG] Chair
Dr P. Alston [PA]
Dr S Bennett [SB]
Dr J. McKay [JM]
Dr D Smith [DS]
Dr JP van Besouw [JPvB]
IN ATTENDANCE: 32 members of the Association
1.
Apologies
Colquhoun, Gillbe, Klein, Scott, Sinclair.
The Chairman wished Dr Scott a speedy recovery following his recent
hospitalisation during the EACTA conference in Venice.
The chairman thanked the organisers for their efforts in organising the
meeting and praised them for their work in putting together parallel
sessions in cardiac and thoracic related subjects.
2.
Minutes from previous meeting: Belfast, November 2005.
These were approved without alteration.
3.
a.
Matters arising
Joint Meeting with Obstetric Anaesthetists Association (OAA).
The chairman informed the membership that arrangements for this
meeting were now well advanced. A two and a half hour session on Friday
12th January from 9.00 to 11.30 within the timetable of the AAGBI WSM
had been allocated. A faculty of speakers had been identified by Dr’s
O’Sullivan and Gibson, invitations would be sent out shortly. Dr
Whittaker pointed out that this would be the 75th anniversary meeting of
the AAGBI.
Fast track Meeting London October 2007.
The chairman reported that she had met with Dr’s Aps and Marks, who
were in the process of organising a “Fast Track Surgery” meeting at the
RSM in October 2007, and were seeking support from ACTA. The
purpose of the meeting was primarily to take the lessons learnt from the
cardiac fast-track program and to see how they could be applied to other
surgical specialties. The target audience was multidisciplinary and would
include surgeons, nursing staff and managers. The meeting will be
organised by a commercial events organiser with sponsorship and trade
activity being organised under the auspices of ACTA.
WFSA-2008.
The chairman had received further information including a list of potential
faculty members from Dr Swanevelder who is requesting financial support
from ACTA to fund speaker’s travel expenses in association with a
satellite conference on cardiac related topics to be organised prior to the
world congress in 2008 in South Africa. The committee were keen to
support the initiative but the consensus opinion of the committee had been
that this should be via an unrestricted educational grant rather than direct
subsidy of “eminenti” as this was likely to be more acceptable to the
charities commission,
b.
c
4.
a
Chairman’s Report (FG).
Aprotinin position statement.
The chairman drew the memberships attention to the position statement
published on the ACTA website in the spring in response to the Jan 2006
FG to liaise
with GO’S on
ongoing
arrangements.
FG to liaise
with RM/CA
on ongoing
arrangements
FG/SB to
discuss further
with JS
b
c
d
5
a
b
6
a
publication by Mangano et al in the NEJM. The statement had been well
received by the members. There was a view amongst those present that
although the paper had caused quite a stir when first published there was
little evidence to suggest that it had significantly altered practice amongst
UK cardiac anaesthetists and surgeons. The chairman expressed her
thanks to Dr’s Smith and Alston for drafting the reply.
Committee Elections 2006.
FG completes her term of office in the autumn of 2006 and therefore a
vacancy will become available on the committee. Nominations from
eligible members will be sought with a closing date of 21st July; in the
event of more than one nomination being received a ballot will be held in
late August closing on 7th September. The ACTA Committee had decided
that Dr Bennett will succeed Dr Gibson as the chairman for 2006-7 with
Dr van Besouw being the chairman elect for 2007-8. JM would be
shadowing DS during 2006-7 with a view to taking on the role of treasurer
and membership secretary in 2007-8. The committee had debated
succession planning and were of the opinion that the committee being so
small in size with tenure of membership of generally six years that the
chair should be elected upon an annual basis in future and that whist being
ACTA chairman that committee member should continue to hold an
administrative role within the committee.
Educational Awards- 2006.
Applications were invited for the ACTA educational Award 2007. The
forms can be downloaded from the website and must be returned to the
secretary by 31st December 2006. The committee will debate the relative
merits of the applications in early January.
President of RCA
The chairman had written to Dr Judith Hulf congratulating her upon her
election as President of the Royal College of Anaesthetists. She also
wished to congratulate Dr David Whittaker upon his election as President
of the AAGBI. She considered it a great honour for ACTA to have two of
its members holding such high office in the anaesthetic world.
Membership issues. (DS).
Finances.
The 2005 accounts for ACTA limited were tabled and approved; a
continuing outstanding payment of £5000 to EACTA 2004 was noted. The
finances of ACTA remain robust and have been increased by the
substantial surplus resulting from the Belfast meeting. DS has clarified
with the Inland Revenue that ACTA membership can be considered a tax
deductible expense. Subscription collection in May 2006 had been
extremely smooth in comparison to previous years with a very small
number of failures.
Database.
The membership remains stable at around 450 members 337 UK
consultants and 87 trainees. New applications continue at a rate of 12/week.
The Chairman expressed her thanks Dr Smith on behalf of the committee
for his continuing work in bringing the Associations DB and Accounts
into order.
J-PvB to
circulate
members with
election
details.
PA to change
nomination
form on
website
Copies of
Accounts to be
available on
the website.DS
Meetings (JM).
Southampton 2006.
The meeting hosted by the Wessex cardiothoracic unit, Southampton will
take place in Bournemouth on 29th September at the Royal Bath Hotel.
The theme of the meeting will be thoracic aortic surgery. A satellite
symposium on the adult patient with a single ventricle will take place on
the 28th September
ACTA- Business Meeting.23.06.06
2
b
c
7.
a
b
ACTA 2007.
The spring meeting- organised by Cambridge - will take place on 22nd
June, there are plans to run a parallel session with the APA during the
afternoon.
The Autumn meeting in November 2007 will be organised by the Welsh
group of cardiothoracic anaesthetists and be co-hosted by Cardiff and
Swansea.
Due to the large number of centres seeking to host an ACTA meeting it
has been agreed in committee that the Spring meetings will be held in
Cambridge in alternate years from 2008 – a full revised list of future
venues is available from the website.
Other meetings.
The meetings secretary had received requests for ACTA endorsement of a
number of meetings being organised and hosted by members of the
association. ACTA were more than happy to support these ventures but
encouraged the organisers to take note of the scheduling so as not to
detract from the two main ACTA events in the Spring and late Autumn.
Organisers seeking to publicise an event should communicate with JM/PA
to ensure the widest possible distribution of information to ACTA
members. Meetings planned for late 2006 include a TOE meeting in Hull
(October) and in 2007 fast-tracking at the RSM (September/October)
TOE Matters (SB).
Examinations.
The UK TOE examination jointly organised by ACTA and the BSE
continues to be developed to make it “fit for purpose”
ACTA members actively participate in the BSE meetings and SB is keen
to develop this link. ACTA members are also encouraged to submit
articles to the BSE in house magazine ECHO.
Departmental Accreditation.
The process for teaching accreditation of Hospitals continues to be
discussed. 9 centres are presently providing practical hands-on TOE
courses
8
Thoracic Issues (JM)
Thanks were expressed to Adrian Pearce and Fang Gao for their efforts in
organising the thoracic breakout session. Those attending that session had
regarded it as a great success.
9.
ACTA News and Website (PA).
The redesigned website is live and feedback has been largely positive. A
number of problems exist in respect of the generation of mailing labels
from the site. PA encouraged the membership to make use of the website
as a portal for association related information. Linkmen needed to be
encouraged to regularly update centre information on the site.
ACTA News.
The spring issue of ACTA news had been posted to members in mid June
Members of the association are to be encouraged to submit articles of
interest to the editor. PA acknowledged the invaluable help he had
received from the previous editor in compiling the copy.
10.
PA to
publicise to
linkmen
EACTA (JG)
The meeting of EACTA which took place in Venice from May 24th-27th
had been well attended by UK delegates who form the largest
constituency of EACTA members. Rob Feneck will step down from the
EACTA committee in 2007 and is keen - along with JG - that UK
members of EACTA remain well represented within the organisation at
directory board level. EACTA funded research grants are undersubscribed
ACTA- Business Meeting.23.06.06
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and ACTA members are encouraged to apply.
Future EACTA meetings are scheduled for Poland 2007, Turkey 2008 and
Greece 2009. It is expected that Edinburgh will bid for the 2010 meeting.
An EACTAECHO meeting is scheduled for September 2006 and will be
an advanced course.
11
Perfusion related matters. (Dr Wark).
KW presented the draft of the revised “Recommendations for Standards of
Monitoring during CPB” produced in conjunction with the SCSGBI and
the Society of Perfusionists. As in the previous iteration of this document
there had been much discussion as to the wording of the document, in
particular in relation to the role of the anaesthetist during aortic cross
clamp. The reviewers were keen to produce a pragmatic and workable
document, which reflected safe practice. A prolonged discussion followed
with many views being aired. FG suggested that interested parties submit
their thoughts via email to KW for distribution to the working party. Dr
Whittaker suggested that the draft document be scrutinised by a medico
legal expert prior to publication. Dr Kneeshaw requested that the
document be made available in print form to “wave under the noses of the
managers”
12
AOB.
Dr Arrowsmith was keen to look at the training profile of recently
appointed cardiothoracic consultants. This could best be achieved via the
linkman. In the changing face of medical training information on the
requisite knowledge and skills of new appointees would help in setting the
agenda for the training of specialists of the future. The continuing paucity
of cardiothoracic surgical consultant posts was also impacting on
anaesthesia with fewer consultant posts being advertised.
The secretary upon behalf of the committee and the members thanked Dr
Gibson for her chairmanship over the past two years and wished her well
upon her retirement from the committee.
DOTM.
13.00
29th September 2006, Royal Bath Hotel, Bournemouth.
There being no further business the Chairman closed the meeting at 17.55.
J-P van Besouw
Secretary ACTA
June 2006.
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