Agenda and minutes

            Apologies for inability to attend were reported from Aldermen Campbell and Newton and Councillors Curran, Jones, Keenan, Kelly, Mallon, Maskey, McCabe, McCarthy, McNamee, O’Neill and Webb.

            (Councillor Hartley declared an interest in this matter in so far as he was a member of the Board of the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust and took no part in the discussion.)

            The Committee was advised that the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust had, the previous day, confirmed that the Emergency Department within the Belfast City Hospital would close temporarily from 1st November, 2011.  It was reported that representatives of the Trust were in attendance in order to outline the extent of the changes to the delivery of Emergency Department services in Belfast.  Accordingly, Mr. C. Donaghy, Chief Executive, Ms. N. Mallon, Director of Human Resources/Deputy Chief Executive, Dr. T. Stevens, Medical Director, Ms. P. Donnelly, Director of Acute Services, and Ms. D. Stockman, Director of Planning, were admitted to the meeting and welcomed by the Chairman.

            Mr. Donaghy informed the Members that the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust operated at all level 1 emergency departments in unscheduled care services at the Belfast City Hospital, the Mater Hospital and the Royal Victoria Hospital, which treated around 145,000 new patients in total each year.  He reviewed the factors which had led to the decision to close temporarily the emergency department at the Belfast City Hospital and pointed out that the Trust, whilst recognising the impact which the decision would have on staff, patients and local communities, believed that it would lead to a more effective use of resources and the extension of the hours during which emergency departments would operate at the other two hospitals.

            Dr. Stevens reviewed the medical staffing compliment in place within the emergency departments, which were led by Consultants in emergency medicine who were supported by speciality and associate speciality doctors and doctors in training.  He reported that 2 factors had necessitated the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust to take immediate action to re-organise emergency departments, the first of which related to a shortfall in staffing levels across all clinical levels, both locally and regionally.  This had been due to:

·         Changes to the immigration system which had limited the number of work permits available, thereby reducing the ability of employers to recruit doctors from outside the European Union;

·         The introduction of a European Worktime Directive which meant that staff rotas must be designed to comply with the legislation, thereby reducing the availability of doctors;

·         Changes in the gender balance in the training workforce due to the employment of more female doctors, which had resulted in increased need for cover due to maternity leave and associated absences; and

·         The relative unattractiveness of emergency medicine as a career in comparison to other medical specialities and general practice in so far as practitioners operated within a high pressure environment with a requirement for significant out-of-hours work.

            He reported that a number of actions had been undertaken to attempt to reduce the difficulties associated with recruitment, including the undertaking of a recruitment drive in India which, unfortunately, had only led to one doctor being  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.