Edinburgh Conference Centre, Herriot Watt University, Edinburgh

Monday 6^th November 2000 at 5.00 pm

Office Holders present: Dr John Fielding, Chairman Dr Ros Given-Wilson, Vice Chairman Dr Matthew Wallis, Secretary Dr Liz Kutt, Scientific Meeting Organiser Dr Sue Barter, Secretary elect

Members present: approximately 82 ordinary members

00.1 Apologies for Absence - Hilary Dobson, Treasurer

00.2 Minutes of the 1999 Meeting - These were approved as a true record of events

00.3 Matters Arising

• Web Site

There have been delays in linking into the College website as it is currently being upgraded. A request for volunteers to help set up the RCR Breast Group site was made by the Chairman. Dr Chris Flowers indicated that he is willing to take this on.

• Symptomatic Questionnaire

Dr Simon Daniel has received a tremendous amount of data from those involved in symptomatic breast imaging. He was thanked by the Chairman for his hard work and it was also noted that a very good response to the questionnaire was obtained with over 75% of completed forms received. 00.4/5 Constitution/Honorary Membership - Dr Fielding re-iterated the Constitution with regards to membership.

• Ordinary membership is open to practising Radiologists with the FRCR or equivalent and with an interest in breast disease. Ordinary members pay a joining fee and annual membership fee which may be reviewed from time to time.

• Honorary membership may be offered to individuals who have made a particular contribution to management and investigation of breast disease using medical imaging. Written nominations should be submitted to the Breast Group and must be accepted by a two thirds majority or more of ordinary members at the RCR Breast Group annual meeting.

• Recently retired radiologists were proposed for Honorary membership this year, Dr Eric Roebuck, Dr Alistair Kirkpatrick and Dr David Asbury. These were unanimously accepted by the membership.

00.6 Discounted rate for attendance at RCR Breast Group Annual Scientific Meeting There have been some problems with members who have allowed their subscriptions to lapse, sometimes for several years, requesting the discounted rate for the Annual Meeting fee. Dr Fielding suggested two proposals to try and overcome this problem.

1. It was proposed that a paragraph was inserted into the Constitution stating that membership will be discontinued on failure to pay the annual subscription.
2. It was proposed that next year a Direct Debit application and membership form will be included in the Registration pack sent out to non members. The discounted course fee would apply if this form was completed and returned promptly.

Both proposals were accepted by the majority of members present. Dr Fielding also made a plea for payment of the annual subscription by Direct Debit rather than cheque, since this is much easier for administration purposes. 00.7 Breast Group Bursary Dr Fielding reminded the membership that up to £1000 is available for travel abroad to study a facet of breast imaging at an expert centre. The recipients of next year’s bursary will be awarded to Pauline Smiddy and Nigel Barrett from West London Screening Service, Charing Cross Hospital, £500 each. A proposal was made to award £500 each for the best poster and best oral presentation at next year’s annual meeting. This was accepted. A sub-committee will be set up to judge the posters and presentations. 00.8 Pump Priming grants £5000 is given annually to the Royal College of Radiologists Pump Priming Committee. Last year they awarded this to a group in Liverpool to analyse major risk factors of 23,000 women referred to their unit and relating this to Wolfe patterns. 00.9 Guidelines and Protocols

1. The Breast Group has significant input into the Royal College of Radiologists Guidelines and Protocols. Dr Ros Given-Wilson has been invited to collaborate with the next edition of ‘MAKING BEST USE OF A DEPARTMENT OF CLINICAL RADIOLOGY’. She thanked colleagues who have volunteered to help with guidelines. She requested that the meeting approved expenses for these volunteers to meet, and this was given. She also asked any breast MRI specialists present to consider volunteering to provide some input.
2. NICE Guidelines on Breast Cancer are being put together. Dr Ian McCall has stated that the Breast Group will have input into the development of these Guidelines.
3. The BASO Guidelines require updating and Robin Wilson has been approached directly but has deferred to the Breast Group. Unanimous approval was given for him to carry on and the Chairman will write to him and confirm this.

00.10 Treasurer’s Report This was presented by Matthew Wallis in Hilary Dobson’s absence. Membership has increased from 401 to 419 members. Subscriptions are paid by Direct Debit by most members. Twelve members names are about to be removed from the membership list for non-payment of subscriptions of more than one year. At present there is a £33,000 float, but this year’s bursary has yet to be paid. Income is generated by membership fees, interest payments and the meeting runs at a small profit. Expenses are mainly on the annual scientific meeting, paperwork and a small amount of travel expenses for executive meetings. The tender for arranging the next five annual scientific meetings have been awarded to Hampton Medical Conferences Ltd, and they were thanked for their efficient and expert organisation of this year’s meeting. 00.11 Meeting 2001 Liz Kutt was formally thanked for organising a tremendous programme for this year. Ideas for next year’s annual meeting were invited and delegates were encouraged to use the Conference blue feedback questionnaires to supply suggestions, or could contact Liz Kutt directly. A proposal was made by the Chairman to use some funds to sponsor the meetings organiser, ie. Dr Kutt, to attend an overseas meeting to get some ideas on how to improve our own annual meeting. This was approved. Liz Kutt also asked for any suggestions on suitable overseas speakers from the floor. The 2001 Scientific Meeting will be in Eastbourne. There has been a proposal from IBUS (International Breast Ultrasound School) to tag their meeting on to our own. Their meeting would be separately registered and financed and would be held the day before our meeting starts, to enable delegates to combine the two. There was general agreement to encourage them as their meetings are of good content and they are an international faculty. Hampton Medical would organise their conference. The majority were in favour of this proposal. 00.12 Officers Matthew Wallis retires as Secretary and was thanked for all his past service to the Group. Matthew will be an extremely hard act to follow but Dr Sue Barter from Beds and Herts Breast Screening Centre has been nominated as Secretary and will take over from today. Dr Ros Given-Wilson will take over the post of Chair next year so nominations for Vice Chairman were invited. 00.13 CMOs Working Party The Chairman and Secretary have met with the CMO. The Breast Group and RCR have stated our position loud and clear, that there should be no expansion of the National Breast Screening Programme until problems with achieving round length, vacant Consultant sessions and staffing have been addressed. Quality must not be sacrificed. If the age range extension is introduced prior to these issues being addressed, then it is feared that morale, recruitment etc will be detrimentally affected. The Chairman and Secretary were therefore disappointed that the age extension was announced at the Labour Party Conference. However, it was also felt that the outcome was the best that could be expected given the political climate and that the funding for two views every round was the bonus to be offset against the four-tier staffing proposal and extension of the programme. 00.14 Occupational Standards Executive members are putting together a document addressing occupational standards for the National Health Service Breast Screening programme. Considerable discussion followed on the nature of the occupational standards, looking at what we do, could it be done by others and could it take the pressure off Consultants. Matthew Wallis is the RCR representative on the Radiology Steering Group responsible for setting occupational standards for the NHSBSP enabling the standards to be developed for the four-tier staffing structure. Extensive discussion then followed. Concerns were raised about the jeopardy of SPR training in breast radiology, and lack of a pay spine for radiographers. Dr Wallis told the meeting that he felt it was recognised that we are running a quality service and that it is not wished to jeopardise that quality. 00.15 Performs Earlier this year an individual doing Performs missed 43% of cancers and this was brought to the attention of Julietta Patnick and Professor Armstrong. In this era of accountability the Chairman, John Fielding, was asked to convene a body to address the issue. However, Professor Gale was adamant the Performs was confidential and that the individual concerned has subsequently sat Performs again and scored satisfactorily. Mike Michell, Matthew Wallis and John Fielding are due to meet to look at Performs again to clarify a number of issues related to the Performs sets as well as action points to be triggered in the event of poor performance. Pathologists have a totally anonymous system in place by which a series of action points are triggered by poor performance. A letter is sent to the individual pointing out this, asking for possible reasons why and suggesting remedial action. The Chairman encouraged delegates to keep doing Performs and not be put off, since only serious and genuine under-performance will trigger any action. 00.16 Any Other Business There were no items under this heading

00.17 Date of Next Meeting Monday 7^th November 2001 at 5 pm in Eastbourne