MINUTES
SOUTH THAMES EAST BRITISH GERIATRICS
SOCIETY REGIONAL MEETING
17 March 2005
Venue: Princess Royal University Hospital
Farnborough Common, Orpington, Kent
Scientific Meeting
British Geriatrics Society, SE Thames Region
17th March 2005
Host: Princess Royal Hospital, Farnborough Common, Orpington, Kent BR6 8ND
Present:
Dr S Hussein
Dr K Rhodes
Dr A Thomas
Dr R Geraghty
Dr A Mohsin
Dr R Lewis
Dr K Rudra
Dr K Singhal
Dr A Elmarimi
Dr V Arudkuman
Dr I Koshi
Dr J Dennison
Dr B Kishern
Dr A Abdulla
Dr P Tsang
Dr M Chellappah
Dr J Burch
Dr T Thomson
Dr N Sengupta
Dr P Maskell
Dr J McManus
Dr S Banerjee Dr S Jones
Dr B Al-Saffar
Dr S Roe
The meeting started by a welcome note from the Chairman, Dr Roger Lewis, and promptly followed by
six abstract presentations, five of which were relevant clinical cases and one was a presentation from Dr
Olga Jones on the preliminary findings of a KCH project entitled “Improving Hospital Care for Older
People”. The presentations were:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
An elderly lady with neck swelling and rash by Dr U Umasankar from Conquest Hospital.
Dual pathology in a lady with progressive weakness by Dr N Aftab from the Princess
Royal University Hospital.
Management of a complex case in geriatric medicine by Dr K Rudra from Lewisham
Hospital.
It can also happen in the older person by Dr N Das from Princess Royal University
Hospital.
A challenging case of acute dystonia by Dr B Kishore from Princess Royal University
Hospital
Improving hospital care for older people project by Dr O Jones from King’s College
Hospital.
A summary of each of the presentations on Power Point is available and can be requested from the
Secretary, Dr A Abdulla.
The second part of the Scientific Programme focused on Radiology in the elderly and started with a
presentation by Dr Adrian Thomas, Consultant Radiologist at the Princess Royal University Hospital
entitled “Imaging the Large Bowel in the Elderly”. This was followed by a presentation on
“Interventional Radiology in the Elderly” by Dr Sherazi, our second Radiologist speaker from the
Princess Royal University Hospital.
The meeting was well-attended and valuable discussion around the cases and presentations took place.
At the end of the meeting it was agreed that Dr K Rudra, SpR at Lewisham University Hospital, be
awarded the SpR prize for his excellent presentation.
Business meeting
Present
BK
ND
PT
PR
BA
RG
JD
FM
KR
JP
RL – (Chair)
AA – (Secretary)
Apologies
Dr J Potter
Dr S Mukherjee
Dr I Carpenter
Dr I Jackson
Dr M Kirions
Dr Hopper
1 Minutes of Previous Business Meeting
The Minutes of the Meeting held on the 16th September 04 at Conquest Hospital, Hastings, were
approved and signed by Dr Roger Lewis.
2 New Members/Appointments/Awards
The following are newly appointed Consultants in the Region:
Dr R Pathansali (KCH), Dr Tom Ernst (Guy’s and St Thomas’),
Prof. Rajkumar (Brighton), Dr Adam Harper (Brighton), and
Dr H Al Mahdy (Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich).
It was noted that Dr Ali had retired from Queen Elizabeth Hospital (Woolwich), and Dr E Harkin has
resigned from Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mother Hospital (Margate).
3
(i)
Matters Arising
It was pointed out that not all members had received beforehand information and paperwork
about the meeting nor had it been sent out to them by email. The need for establishing solid
communication links to all the BGS members within the Region was emphasised and it was
agreed that the way forward is for paperless communication via email.
Action - Aza Abdulla to undertake the responsibility of updating and completing the email
database for our Regional members.
(ii)
Financial position.
Roger Lewis showed the financial position for our Region demonstrated a healthy balance of
£1,470 as of the 11th February 2005. Attachment (a) shows the detail of our financial position
4
BGS Regional Administration
Drs Jonathon Potter and Roger Lewis were nominated by the Region to act as Father Figures
for SE BGS Region. Part of their remit would be to support nominations to the Central BGS
for consideration for clinical excellence awards at Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum levels.
Attachment (b) is a letter from RL and JP explaining the process and inviting nominations for
consideration of Clinical Excellence Awards by the 1 September 05.
5
Council of England/Council Members
JP reported on the meeting held between the BGS and the Department of Health on the 8 th
December 04 (see attachment (c). JP re-iterated the role of Council of England in influencing
policies in regards to elderly care at a central level and emphasised the need for Regional BGS
members to bring to the attention of the Council of England any “burning issues” so that they
can be raised centrally. RG questioned the lack of evidence based in supporting the initiates
from the Department of Health especially with regards to intermediate care and chronic
disease management; concern was expressed that geriatricians may be loosing control on these
issues and the central BGS office was not arguing against or debating these central political
initiatives. Concern was also raised that the PCTs and GPs were taking control. FM
expressed the feeling amongst geriatricians that the broad perspective of elderly care was
being taken away from elderly care physicians and passed on to other professionals such as
GPs and nurses. It was felt that PCTs which provide services for elderly care should have
at least one lead geriatrician appointed to supervise these elderly care services.
Action: It was agreed JP, as Regional Representative for the Council of England, would take
the following concern to the Council of England:
It was felt the BGS appears too readily to support recent National developments of
Policies; for example, the introduction of other care models such as intermediate care.
management
A specific concern was the lack of evidence these ‘innovations’ are beneficial and that
geriatricians would see resources being constrained to help fund these non-evidenced based
initiatives. Also, geriatricians are generally not involved in setting up and running these
developments, or involved in governance issues. It was suggested that these
initiatives/innovations should include the following critical components:
(a)
be based on comprehensive geriatric assessment, including input from a geriatrician
and
(b)
include sessional commitment from a geriatrician to at least help in the development
and governance issues.
It was further suggested that
(a)
there should be a BGS questionnaire to determine if there were documented examples
of resources being channeled from geriatric departments towards intermediate care
and chronic disease management projects, and
(b)
there should be a BGS audit to determine the extent to which the “critical
components” identified above were being implemented in intermediate care projects
around the country.
6
ELECTION OF OFFICERS
RL pointed out that 2 vacancies have become available in the central BGS office:
1) BGS Honorary Deputy Secretary
2) Honorary Deputy Treasurer
Nominations are being sought (closing date: 29th April 05).
Nominations are also sought for a newly created post of a Staff Grade Representative on the
Council of England, details of which are available in the March 05 BGS News Letter.
The Council of England is also asking for nominations for two vacancies within the
Council/Clinical Effectiveness Committee.
Finally JP will be coming to the end of his term as representative on the Council of England
and nominations will be invited for a successor.
7
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
It was pointed out that our Regional meetings do not always appear on the CME diary for the
Royal College of Physicians and that the Royal College CME office will need to be contacted
prior to our Regional meetings so that they could be listed on their Website.
Members were reminded to visit the BGS Website as it contains a lot of information,
especially in regards to the Council of England meetings and BGS news.
8
DATE & TIME OF NEXT MEETING: 15th September 05 at Lewisham University
Hospital