BMA News |   Discretionary Points   | Work problems  |  keep us informed  |   membership   | committee  |  discussion forum

BMA News.....S.M.Husain

At the BMA SAS Annual conference on 19.6.08 , the Co Chairs Mohib Khan and Awani Chaudhry have resigned. Deputy Chair Greg Dilliway steps down to take up a Consultant Post.
SAS West Midland SAS Annual General Meeting (open to all SAS doctors / dentists in the region) is to take Place at 6 PM.on 3rd. July 08.at the Birmingham Medical Institute when Chair, Deputy Chair and Hon.Secretary as well as two representatives from each Hospital in the West Midlands region will be elected - Don't miss it.

Discretionary Points

AS should apply for these as soon as possible, SG can apply for their equivalent, Optional Points. Here is Good Hope's Application form.

Work problems

We all have problems. Some I heard of this week from colleagues in the region:

1. The retinal photographic system (Topcon) was broken, for the 3rd time this year. No date for repair. Typical of IT problems....good sytems are scraped, repairs are slow, and so on. Patients have 2 patient numbers!!
2. Notes missing.
3. Patients presented with advanced diabetic retinopathy..a condition that is generally completely preventable with good medical care.
4. Secretaries have reduced their hours and there is no replacement..the others are expected to take over all the work. Perhaps the result: one is off sick, one is working and unwell, the others try to leave/very unhappy.
5. Staff leave and new recruits start ...a year later. There is no overlap, so all the useful things learnt by the previous staff member could not be passed on to the new person. As a result, the hospital concerned will not learn from its mistakes.
6. Annual leave has to be completed by an intermediary on a Google Calendar. The colleague is 10 miles away in a different department!
7. No time to complete the discretionary point application form...see above. To complete this, an audit is needed...no time for the audit.

Please keep NSASG informed

Please do provide us (members) the latest News and information and any progress that nsasg has made. Not much news this week!

Membership of the NSASG

Any NHS non-training and non-consultant doctor/dentist. Our aims:

1. To support members in negotiating with the Department of Health (DOH).
2. In this respect to negotiate better conditions than the new contract offers
3. To achieve a career structure, so that members can achieve competencies etc, and progress from staff grade to associate specialist for instance.
4. The highest achieving members should achieve a post as consultant, by means of article 14 or its replacement.
5. To put pressure on the BMA to ensure that they fully support these measures and negotiate more effectively with the DOH
6. NSAS will not have enough power (at least initially) to replace the BMA in supporting individual doctors in negotiations with their Trust
7. We have~150 members so far. Apparently we have to have a much greater membership before we can be involved in negotiations…

'Committee'

'Chairman' david.kinshuck at heartofengland.nhs.uk

Secretary: Josephine Woodhouse;  publicity... Rod Price