FOI – 000121 Scottish Stoma Nurse Group Support Garment Review (HTML)

Date received – 20 May 2022 | Date responded – 21 June 2022

Request

There was a Scottish Stoma Nurse Group: Support Garment Review meeting on Thursday the 17th of November 2016 (Though the document file says 2017). NSS provided Secretariat and Project Management support to this group.

1. Could you confirm whether this meeting was held in 2016 or 2017?

2. Billy Hislop (Category Manager) was in attendance from NSS. In these agreed minutes under agenda Item 2 Billy Hislop discussed developing effective partnerships with the Scottish Government Stoma Forum. Could you provide all correspondence between Billy Hislop and this group and provide contact details for this Scottish Government Group.

3. Billy Hislop it is stated attended a group run by the British Healthcare Trades Association. Were any Political lobbyists at this meeting and what is NSS policy for its staff attending meetings where political lobbyists and pharmaceutical representatives are present.

4. Billy Hislop in section 4.2 of the minutes states that the "proposals" to remove level 1 garments from the prescription tariff had been discussed with ostomy patient groups. Could I be given minutes/details/evidence of these discussions ever having taken place.

5. In section 4.1 of the minutes is states "Tracy motioned to only prescribe firm products for hernia" This I believe is referring to Tracy McMeekin. Is Tracy McMeekin an employee of NSS or ever been contracted to provide services to NSS.

6. Can I confirm that 4.1 was in reference to those patients with a hernia and not for prevention of a hernia?

7. Who at NSS made the decision to remove level 1 support wear from the Stoma Drug Tariff as this is a policy decision as there is clear need for these products to be prescribed.

Response

I refer to your freedom of information request that we received on 20 May 2022 requesting the following information.

There was a Scottish Stoma Nurse Group: Support Garment Review meeting on Thursday the 17th of November 2016 (Though the document file says 2017). NSS provided Secretariat and Project Management support to this group.

1. Could you confirm whether this meeting was held in 2016 or 2017?

The Scottish Stoma Nurse Group: Support Garment Review meeting was held on Thursday 17th November 2016. These approved minutes from the meeting have previously been saved in error as 2017-11-17 – Approved Minutes. The updated version is attached as Appendix 1: (2016-11-17) SSNG SGR SLWG Minutes.

2.Billy Hislop (Category Manager) was in attendance from NSS. In these agreed minutesunder agenda Item 2 Billy Hislop discussed developing effective partnerships with theScottish Government Stoma Forum. Could you provide all correspondence between Billy Hislop and this group and provide contact details for this Scottish Government Group.

Under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2022 (FOISA) an organisation does not require to provide information if it does not hold that information. NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) provided support for the Scottish Stoma Nurse Group: Support Garment Review but were not tasked with minuting these meetings. NSS has completed a search of our records and do not hold any correspondence between Billy Hislop and this group. Billy Hislop has carried out a search of his emails and was able to locate some calendar invites for meetings in relation to the NSQIG, but no email communications have been located. Our corporate filing systems were also searched for any relevant emails, and none were located.

Details regarding the Scottish Stoma Nurse Forum can be found here: https://www.bhta.com/scottish-stoma-forum/. The group can be contacted via email at ssf@bhta.com.

3. Billy Hislop it is stated attended a group run by the British Healthcare Trades Association. Were any Political lobbyists at this meeting and what is NSS policy for its staff attending meetings where political lobbyists and pharmaceutical representatives are present.

Under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act an organisation does not require to provide information if it does not hold that information. NSS does not have such a policy regarding political lobbyists. What we have provided is the Appendix 2: Patient Industry Professional Forum (PIPs) Collaborative Standards document, which details how NSS staff are required to communicate.

Our Programme Management Services (PgMS) division have also advised that staff will attend meetings of key stakeholders as required by the remit of the particular project. Generally, these stakeholders work for the customer organisation or are service users of that organisation. We are not aware of any meetings PgMS staff have attended where political lobbyists are in attendance. Board Services have advised that staff will attend meetings as required by the remit of the particular board/committee terms of reference to provide secretariat support, direction of which would be given by the appropriate Senior Reporting Officer, Executive Lead or Chair.

4. Billy Hislop in section 4.2 of the minutes states that the "proposals" to remove level 1 garments from the prescription tariff had been discussed with ostomy patient groups. Could I be given minutes/details/evidence of these discussions ever having taken place.

Under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act an organisation does not require to provide information if it does not hold that information. NSS does not hold this information. The removal of Level 1 garments was discussed at the Scottish Stoma Forum. We do not have minutes from that meeting. NSS were not tasked with minuting Ostomy Patient Group meetings.

5. In section 4.1 of the minutes is states "Tracy motioned to only prescribe firm products for hernia" This I believe is referring to Tracy McMeekin. Is Tracy McMeekin an employee of NSS or ever been contracted to provide services to NSS.

Tracy is not an employee of NSS and to our knowledge has not been contracted to provide services under NSS.

6. Can I confirm that 4.1 was in reference to those patients with a hernia and not for prevention of a hernia?

There is no indication from the minute of reference to hernia or prevention of hernia; however, in the final report it states in section 6.0 Recommendations are as follows:

• All patients following stoma surgery will be advised to wear a support garment either Level 1 or Level 2.
• Level 2 garments are suitable for prescription for PSH Prevention and Management following a Stoma CNS risk assessment review and Level 2 garment advice.

7. Who at NSS made the decision to remove level 1 support wear from the Stoma Drug Tariff as this is a policy decision as there is clear need for these products to be prescribed.

As detailed in the minutes of the meeting, there was wide agreement from the group to remove prescription of lightweight (level 1) garments in line with national evidence. The decision to remove Level 1 products from prescription is as noted in the final report; Appendix 2: PIPs Collaborative Standards 6th edition 2014, that it was from consensus of the clinical experts on the short lifeworking group based on the evidence available to them at the time of their work. NSS did not make the decision to remove Level 1 products.

I trust you will find the information of assistance and if you require any further information please do not hesitate to contact us.

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Contact

Address

If after a review you are still unhappy, you also have the right to apply to the Scottish Information Commissioner, who can be contacted at Kinburn Castle, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9DS, or via their application form.

National Services Scotland (NSS) is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. You can view all FOI responses within our FOI Publications repository.