CGS Officers and Council

President: Dr Frances Flinter
Vice-President: Dr Alan Fryer
Secretary General: Dr Elisabeth Rosser
Treasurer: Dr Amanda Collins
Conference Organiser: Dr Daniela Pilz

Click here to download a full list of members of the CGS Council.

The CGS Constitution can be downloaded here

Click here to go to information about CGS Working Groups & Subcommittees.

Minutes of the Clinical Genetics Society Council Meeting.

Wednesday 11^th March 2009, Institute of Child Health, London.

Present: 

Alan Fryer (President), Frances Flinter (Vice President and President Elect), Elisabeth Rosser (Secretary), Sahar Mansour (Conference Organiser), Mandy Collins (Treasurer), Dorothy Trump, Lily Islam, Emma Hobson, Angie Brady, Daniela Pilz, Sarah Smithson, Rob Hastings (Trainee Representative).  Susan Holder Judith Goodship (Academic Vice President)

In attendance:

Adam Shaw (Website Coordinator), Michael Wright (GENCAG representative), Susan Huson (Newsletter Editor), John Dean (Chair of Clinical Governance Committee),

1.  Welcome and Apologies for Absence:

Apologies were received from Carol Gardiner, Tessa Homfray, Gareth Evans and Anneke Lucassen.  Rob Hastings was welcomed to his first meeting.

2.  New Members:

Policy for accepting new members was discussed.  Most members are proposed and seconded by existing members of CGS.  When this is not the case, it was agreed that a CV plus a reference from someone from a recognised Genetics Society would be acceptable.

3.  Changes in CGS Officers:

Retiring members of council were thanked for their contributions. The website to be updated with new committee members and roles.

4.  New CGS Representatives on Other Committees:

A document had been circulated

5. Minutes of the CGS Council Meeting held on October 28^th:

These had been circulated. Corrections were made to the spelling of some names.

Page 4 Point 7: The last sentence of the fourth paragraph should read; “the initial remit of the academic subcommittee included advising on how to link in with the NIHR research networks but this role had been superseded by the establishment of clinical research networks.”

Page 6, point 11b should read, “BSL translated DVDs”..

6.  Matters Arising from Previous Minutes not Otherwise on the Agenda:

• Website protocol – dealt with
• Consultant list – will be resent. 
• Cardiac genetics – Paul Brennan is going to come to the June Meeting to discuss cardiac genetics.  

7.  National Clinical Service Developments:

• IT issues.  The submitted  report was accepted without further discussion.
• 18 weeks.  Local agreements can be set in place such as not accepting cancer referrals without details of the family history.  Commissioning pathways must not be used to obstruct referrals.  Six week diagnostic wait refers to the time between offering the test to the patient and making it available, not the time to produce the results. The 18 weeks wait applies to clinical genetics.
• Telephone consultations can be counted as activity if they replace appointments but should be used with caution as the National tariff for telephone consultations is £24.00.

There is a new group set-up in Scotland, the e-Genetics Group.  John Dean sits on this.

Report from the Lead Clinicians group. 

A report had been circulated.  This was not discussed further.

Quality metrics indicators. 

A report had been circulated.  The measures agreed at the last meeting have been submitted.  The RCP is supportive in assisting in selecting and developing appropriate measures.

Developing standard for health records

A report had been submitted and was not discussed further

8.  Revalidation:

The GMC have suggested a framework based on the four domains

Domain 1 – Knowledge, Skills and Performance

Domain 2 – Safety and Quality                                                           

Domain 3 – Communication, Partnership and Teamwork                         

Domain 4 – Maintaining Trust                                                                       

The RCP is looking at expected standards and how to measure and demonstrate them. 

9.  Academic Subcommittee:

A report had been submitted. Three concerns were raised:

10.  Ongoing Initiatives:

Links with developing services outside the UK.

Applications for next year’s Scholarship were opened this month.  For 2010 the attachment will be for the BSHG rather than for CGS in Amsterdam. 

Prenatal Genetics Report.  

Has been ratified by the RCOG and Maternal and Fetal Medicine Society and is on the website.

11. Clinical Governance Subgroup

Guidelines for guidelines are now on the website

The haemochromatosis survey has been sent and a poor response received.

The majority of the discussion was about the present and future remit of the clinical governance subcommittee. 

The original remit was very brief.  The new remit has been drafted to try to clarify the role and constitution of the subgroup.  The issue was discussed at some length.  The term clinical governance is very broad. It may be helpful to be more specific and use terms such as patient safety, clinical effectiveness and quality measures.

It was proposed that a survey is undertaken to find out if there is a lead in each department, how incidents are reported and whether a department has been involved in any medicolegal cases.

There was also some discussion about the membership of the committee.  There should be a fixed term of membership, generally three years and that this should be staggered initially so that not everybody changes at once..

John Dean was thanked for all his hard work.  After discussion the following decisions were made:  there would be a core group consisting of interested people and led by a council member; Sarah Smithson agreed to take this role on in September working alongside John Dean. It was agreed that there should be a limited membership. There needs to be effective communication directly with nominated clinical governance leads in each department.  There should be representatives from the AGNC and from the clinical genetics trainees on the committee.

A model will be presented at the June council meeting.

12a, Trainee report

This had been circulated. There was some discussion as to whether council was the most appropriate place to discuss the issue of bullying.  It was felt most appropriate for the SAC to discuss the issue and the President offered to raise this with the lead clinicians.

CGS cannot offer funding for a trainee day.

12b, SAC report

The discussion focused on KBA.

An examination overlapping with MRCPath Part I, would cost less than setting up a new stand-alone system.  It was agreed that, although not perfect, this was the most practical option.  Council agreed that the CGS Treasurer, an academic committee representative, a trainee represenatative and a patient representative should be included in the working party to develop KBA.

12c, Manpower issues updatee

A report had been.submitted. It was noted that academic posts vary in how they are paid and the number of clinical sessions worked and some consultants had more than 10 Pas.  This causes some difficulties in performing a workforce survey. It was felt best to try and record numbers in WTEs, where possible.

13, Reports from other committees

a.  JCMG Reports had been circulated. It was highlighted that NCG funding often does not include wider genetic issues such as family screening by molecular analysis.

13b.  GENCAG report.  No relevant new information needed to be discussed.

13c.  UKGTN working groups.  A report was circulated. No further discussion.

13d.  BSHG council.  A report had been submitted. The President highlighted the decision to postpone the business manager post and the financial savings of moving the BSHG conference to Warwick. No further discussion was held.

13e.  Cancer Genetics Group.  The report was tabled.  No further discussion was held.

14, Budget

A report had been circulated

A deficit for 2007/2008 is expected.  Differential subscriptions would be very hard to administer and it was agreed that a £10 increase in subscription would be proposed at the AGM.

15, CGS regional network. Nothing to report..

16, Website Adam was thanked for all his hard work.

17, CGS Conferences Nothing to report.

18, Carter lecturer for 2010.  The nomination committee will meet to discuss this.

19, Genetic testing of children. Nothing to report

20, Any other business.

There had been a request from the ACCEA Committee for a list of the six most highly rated specialist genetic journals in terms of their clinical impact.

Date of next meeting:  Monday. 22^nd June

Summaries of the minutes of CGS council meetings are archived below:

October 2008

June 2008

January 2008 Council Away Day

June 2007

March 2007

November 2006

June 2006

February 2006

[For further information and contact information, please contact the CGS office at cgs@bshg.org.uk ]