The Board of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde met on Tuesday, 27 June 2023. The full set of papers arehere.
This summary, compiled by Health Board staff, sets out key decisions and issues considered at the meeting.
Chair and Chief Executive’s Reports
Professor John Brown CBE reported on his key activities over the past two months, which included meetings with the Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care, Michael Matheson MSP, to discuss the response to system pressures. The Chair also hosted a number of official visits, including the topping out ceremony for the new North East Hub carried out by Mr Matheson, a visit by the Minister for Victims and Community Safety, Siobhan Brown MSP, to meet Youth Navigators and a visit by the Permanent Secretary, John-Paul Marks, and Director-General Health and Social Care and Chief Executive of NHSScotland, Caroline Lamb, to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and Royal Hospital for Children. He also reported on a visit by members of the Acute Services Committee to the Royal Alexandra Hospital.
Pictured: Professor John Brown and Jane Grant, Chief Executive of the Board.
Professor Brown was pleased to present the St Mungo’s Award for Research at a ceremony at the GRI to Dr Richard Lowrie for his team’s work on the PHEONix trial and homeless outreach service. He attended an event at Erskine Hospital for Armed Forces and also officially opened the Gro-Garden with Board Sustainability Champion, Michelle Wailes. The Gro-Garden has greenspace, art and wellbeing at its heart and provides a welcome respite spot for staff and patients to enjoy. Finally, the Chair was proud to join host, Professor Jason Leitch, at the annual celebrating staff awards on 4 May 2023. He recorded the appreciation of the Board for all that NHSGGC staff do to provide quality, compassionate care to our patients.
Chief Executive, Jane Grant, reported on a number of meetings she had in the period since the last Board meeting. These included meetings with Scottish Government officials on planned care and on patient flow and a meeting with the Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care on the ongoing challenge of delayed discharges. Mrs Grant reported that planning was underway to prepare for the potential impact of industrial action by junior doctors, currently scheduled for 12-15 July. She had attended a series of workshops with colleagues on the Board’s Moving Forward Together strategy and had also joined colleagues to present on the implementation of the strategy at the recent national NHSScotland event, which had been well received. Mrs Grant reported that the latest hearings of the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry had heard evidence from NHSGGC staff and that significant efforts had been made to ensure staff had been supported throughout this process. Finally, Mrs Grant was pleased to be able to open the Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion conference which had taken place.
Patient Story
Professor Angela Wallace, Executive Nurse Director, introduced the patient story, which this month, focuses on the work of Compassionate Inverclyde, a programme supported by Inverclyde HSCP to enable and nurture kindness, helpfulness and neighbourliness in Inverclyde.
Screening Annual Report 2021/22: Dr Emilia Crighton, pictured left, Interim Director for Public Health, presented the annual screening report for 2021/22. The report shows the performance across a number of screening programmes with the majority of programmes meeting expected annual targets.
Screening programmes across NHSGGC continue to recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the commitment to early detection and timely interventions by providing comprehensive screening services is demonstrated within this report.
It reflects the dedication from our staff members to deliver high quality screening services that prevent or identify diseases at an early stage.
Notable areas of success are the newborn blood-spot and newborn hearing screening where there was over 99% uptake; the babies affected received timely treatment that improved their health or prevented significant disability. Breast and bowel screening programmes also met the uptake targets which reflects the organisation’s commitment to providing accessible services to help early detection and treatment of cancer.
Dr Crighton said: “While the report demonstrates success across our screening programmes, I recognise there are improvements to be made across specific area such as cervical screening, where I would urge women to make the smear appointment when prompted as it can save their life.
“I would like to thank the dedicated staff across the whole of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde who have helped ensure our screening programmes continue to provide the best possible service for members of the public.”
Performance Report: Mr Colin Neil, Finance Director, presented the performance report and highlighted a number of key areas:
For the third consecutive month there has been an improvement in the Cancer 62 day waiting times performance, which is currently 66%. Overall performance however remains a challenge.
Progress continues in relation to reducing longest waits with the number of patients waiting more than 52 weeks for a new outpatient appointment within the planned position for April 2023. The number of inpatient and day cases waiting more than 78 weeks is also within the planned position for April 2023.
Access to Psychological Therapies (85.5%) was marginally below the national target of 90% in April 2023. Performance in relation to the number of CAMHS patients seen in less than 18 weeks of referral (81.3%) was below the planned position for April 2023, although the number of long waiting patients continues to reduce.
Performance relating to A&E four hour waits remained a significant challenge during April 2023.
Performance in relation to the overall number of acute delayed discharges remained challenging in April 2023, (303 compared to the previous month of 285).
Board members noted the current ED performance and asked about preparations for winter. Dr Jennifer Armstrong, Medical Director, advised that planning for this winter began back in February, with a series of workshops to identify and agree priorities for action. A systematic approach will see a focus on vaccination, the further development and embedding of unscheduled care pathways and discharge without delay, and bed surge plans for additional capacity.
Social listening: The issue of social listening was discussed. The Finance, Planning and Performance Committee had received a briefing on this activity from the Director of Communications and Public Engagement, who had acknowledged and apologised for the error of judgement made in monitoring the public social media account of one family member. The Committee had been provided with assurances that no other members of the public, patients or relatives were followed [on social media] and that this account was no longer followed. In addition, three senior staff members had been followed [on social media] with their agreement. West of Scotland MSPs had also been followed. None of these accounts are now followed. In response to a further question from a Board member, the Chief Executive confirmed that the use of social listening within the organisation and the handling of the issue had been reviewed and lessons learned.
Professor Angela Wallace, Executive Nurse Director, pictured right, gave her regular report to the Board.
The Healthcare Associated Infection Reporting Template (HAIRT) is a mandatory reporting tool for the Board to have an oversight of the Healthcare Associated targets Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia (SAB), Clostridioides difficile infections (CDI), E.coli bacteraemia (ECB), incidents and outbreaks and all other Healthcare Associated Infections activities across NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
Professor Wallace highlighted the following from the report:
The number of the Healthcare Associated SAB cases has been variable but within expected limits since 2020.
There has been a decrease in the overall ECB cases over the past two months. ECB rates remain within normal control limits.
There has been a reduction in the overall CDI cases from October 2021 to date. The Infection Prevention and Control Team continues to closely monitor and implement local actions in any areas with higher than expected numbers. There have been no incidents of cross transmission due to CDI during this period.
There were no Non-COVID incidents in March and April 2023 that were assessed at Red or Amber.
Healthcare Improvement Scotland commenced a new element of external quality assurance work in December 2022, to inspect infection prevention and control arrangements in NHS inpatient mental health services. There was an inspection of services in Gartnavel Royal Hospital carried out on the 18th January 2023. There were four requirements and two recommendations made. An action plan was completed and the report was published at the end of March.
Report from June meeting of the NHSGGC Board 
Professor John Brown CBE reported on his key activities over the past two months, which included meetings with the Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care, Michael Matheson MSP, to discuss the response to system pressures. The Chair also hosted a number of official visits, including the topping out ceremony for the new North East Hub carried out by Mr Matheson, a visit by the Minister for Victims and Community Safety, Siobhan Brown MSP, to meet Youth Navigators and a visit by the Permanent Secretary, John-Paul Marks, and Director-General Health and Social Care and Chief Executive of NHSScotland, Caroline Lamb, to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and Royal Hospital for Children. He also reported on a visit by members of the Acute Services Committee to the Royal Alexandra Hospital.
Screening Annual Report 2021/22: 