The Patient Liaison Group has met 8 times between June 2008 & June 2010. A copy of the minutes of each meeting is held in the office.

Whilst the Group had adopted the habit of meeting 4 times a year, in 2010 it was decided to revert to a 3-times-a-year schedule, bearing in mind the frequent use of e-mail communication.

There had been no need to use telephone conferencing and it was decided that this facility should be kept in reserve in view of the drawbacks and additional expense.

During his tenure as CEO, Mr Adams attended meetings regularly & during a spell when there was no Administrator took minutes. On her appointment Ms Charlene Frater took over this role. Following Mr Adams' retirement we were pleased to welcome the new CEO, Mr Mike Kimmons.

Following the retirement of Mr Leslie at the end of his tenure, Mrs Hawkes took the chair for a short while but resigned for reasons unrelated to the business of the committee. Mr Montgomery then took the helm. The vice-chair was not filled for some months until Mr Welch was elected in December 2009.

During this period Mr Garrett finished his period of membership, and retired. Mrs Hawkes resigned for personal reasons & Mrs Reavley found it necessary to take a sabbatical, because of family issues, but has remained a valuable corresponding member through email.

Mr Bob Smith joined the Group. He & Mr Welch were for a time the only lay members who attended meetings. Various initiatives were taken to find new members, and towards the end of 2009 Mr Steven Roger accepted the invitation to join the group. Mrs Isobel Lilie, and Mr Derek Twigg were unable to attend until April 2010. Mr Terry Garret very generously agreed to rejoin the group.

It was discussed and agreed by the BOA Council that the lay membership should be increased, and an additional cadre of Corresponding Members be formed. This has enabled the Group to keep the input from Mrs Reavley and number of other keen Members who find travelling to London difficult.

During this period Mr Leslie, Miss Marx, Mr Getty, Mr Barry moved on and the Group was joined by Mr Montgomery (Chair), Mr Porter & Mr Ramachandran.

To try to maintain a continuity of membership it was agreed to ask Council to agree to some amendments to the Terms of Reference:

In this period the ‘Expectations of the Paediatric Orthopaedic Patient’ & the ‘Guidance for Older Patients with Hip Fractures’ were written, agreed by Council & posted on the PLG web page.

The PLG was approached by Professor Keith Willett in his role as Trauma Czar to ask if he could make use of ‘Guidance for Older Patients with Hip Fractures’. This document has now gained Department of Health endorsement and will assist health care commissioning throughout the UK.

Following feedback from various sources about inappropriate discharge procedures in some areas the Group has now begun to work on a Discharge Expectation paper.

Through the good auspices of Anne Meade the Group's publications have been uploaded to our web page on the BOA Website. Following discussions within the Group the PLG looks forward to active involvement in the imminent redevelopment of the BOA website. The focus here is to ensure that the website becomes a resource for patients as well as doctors.

Following the resignation of Mrs Hawkes, regular lay attendance at Council stopped. The previous & current Chairs have represented the Group, but not from a lay perspective & it has been decided that when the vice-chair is a lay member that person should be invited to attend Council as the PLG representative.

ARMA – We are in regular contact & have on-going discussions

POIS – Mrs Hawkes represented us at their meeting, but since her resignation we have lost contact. The Committee felt that despite the negative feedback received from Jo Hawkes about the success of POIS, it was still worth having a representative on the committee for information/representation. It was also agreed that Tim Wilton (BOA representative) should be approached for a copy of the reports from POIS meetings.

Academy of Medical Royal Colleges PLG – in the past we have exchanges minutes – but this trend has lapsed, and there has been no initiative to re-kindle the link.

Arthritis Care – we keep regular contact and have had discussions with Mrs Haynes. However we have not built a close relationship.

ISTCs - There was a general consensus that the results reported in JBJS on the performance of ISTCs were poor. Mr Adams reported that the process is being reviewed again, but work is at a preliminary stage.

NICE – Mr Welch was the lay representative on the Orthopaedic Sub Group of the NICE “Guidance for the prevention of VTE in Surgery” Committees. This Guidance was published in January 2010. It is anticipated that the BOA will liaise with Mr Welch when they publish the lay version of the forthcoming Blue Book as a follow up to the NICE Guidance.

The Patient Liaison Group has survived a turbulent period during which, despite a large turnover of members, has published and posted 2 documents, and achieved DH endorsement for its work. The PLG is currently at its strongest with a keen core membership of meeting-attending & corresponding members.

It has continued to represent public and patient opinion to the BOA.

The PLG has an agreed agenda for the forthcoming years and looks forward to a close and productive relationship with the BOA & its Council.

The PLG would like to thank the BOA for its continued support & hospitality.

Nick Welch

Vice-chair

3rd July 2010