2.FOR PUBLISHING FINAL Board mtg minutes 28 February 2019 Redacted.pdf

CONFIDENTIAL TO BOARD MEMBERS ONLY

NEW ZEALAND BLOOD SERVICE

Minutes – NZBS Board Meeting

Minutes of the NZBS Board
Meeting held at:
New Zealand Blood Service

11 Great South Road

Epsom

Auckland

In at endance:
Mr David Chamberlain (Chair)

Dr Jackie Blue (Deputy Chair)

Dr Bart Baker

Ms Fiona Pimm

Dr Paula Martin

Ms Cathryn Lancaster

Apologies:
Mr Ray Lind

Management:
Ms Sam Cliffe (CEO)

Mr John Harrison (Director Finance)

Board Secretariat:
Ms Vanessa Siddins (Board Secretary)

Miss Karen Martin

Date:
28 February 2019

9.35am
BOARD ONLY TIME

Discussion on the CEO salary has been recorded separately from these minutes.

In light of the recent Mainzeal ruling, J Blue queried what kind of liability insurance we have for Board members. It was
noted that on the mat er of our insurance, J Harrison is bet er to answer in detail and that the details are in Board Books.
The NZBS Board have al  signed a Deed of Indemnity. If for some reason a Board member is removed, the deed gives
that Board member access to relevant Board material pertaining to their time as a Board member.
D Chamberlain referred to the Board Self-Assessment work and noted it was too early to commence this with new Board
members and would bring this back to the Board later in the year.
In a meeting with Alex Beedel  from the Ministry regarding Board appointments, D Chamberlain discussed the issue of
four Board members finishing their tenure on 15 June this year.  D Chamberlain has been on the Board for more than nine
years and had thought he would be finishing up this year. It looks now as if he could possibly stay for another year which
he would be happy to do.  Alex had commented that in general if three Board members were up for renewal, the thinking
was that two should be renewed and one should change.  In response to the question of tenures always ending on the
same date, D Chamberlain explained that this was not always the case and dates can get out of sync when there are
delays.

10.15am  S Cliffe, J Harrison and K Martin joined the meeting. D Chamberlain welcomed K Martin to the meeting and
made introductions to the Board members.

ITEM 1.0  APOLOGIES
Ray Lind had provided his apology for this meeting.
1

CONFIDENTIAL TO BOARD MEMBERS ONLY

ITEM 2.0  INTERESTS REGISTER

2.1
Updates to the Interest Register

C Lancaster advised the fol owing need to be added to the register:

•  Lancaster Consulting 2019 Ltd – Director fees
•  Life Education Trust Canterbury – voluntary

J Blue enquired if personal relationships should be declared, eg R Lind had declared he is married to Dame Annet e King.
D Chamberlain clarified that this only needed to be declared if it’s viewed as significant.

2.2
Declarations of Conflicts of Interest for this Agenda

There were no conflicts of interest acknowledged for any items on the agenda.

ITEM 3.0  MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING/ACTIONS REPORT

3.1
Confirmation of Minutes – 6 December 2018 Board meeting.

It was noted that there were some smal  changes on pages page 4, item 6.0 and page 9, from P Martin in the presented
version which was approved by D Chamberlain.
Motion:
The presented minutes of the 6 December Board meeting were accepted as a true and correct record of
that meeting.

Motion by:
P Martin
Seconded by:  F Pimm
Carried:
Al  present in favour

3.2
Confirmation of Minutes – 31 January 2019 Board teleconference.
Motion:
The presented minutes of the 31 January 2019 NZBS Board meeting were accepted as a true and correct
record of that meeting.

Motion by:
J Blue
Seconded by:  C Lancaster
Carried:
Al  present in favour

3.3
Schedule of Outstanding Action Items from Previous Meetings
The status of all action items as outlined in agenda item 3.3 were noted.
The following action items were discussed:
4.8
The quarterly organisational risk register is scheduled to be presented at the March Board meeting as a
standing item. S Clif e suggested that it would be useful to have the more in-depth session with the
Executive management team in at endance.  C Lancaster proposed that it would be helpful to have an
independent facilitator for this session.
12.1
Deceased Organ Donation - S Cliffe received two phone cal s yesterday (27 February 2019) from the
Ministry of Health. She was advised that the paper was going to Cabinet on Monday, 11 March and
therefore notification could potential y be released to the public as soon as Tuesday, 12 March. S Cliffe
had formal y requested with the Minister’s of ice to see the paper, but this has yet to be forthcoming.  As
we don’t yet know what’s in the paper, we are concerned about messaging and have our communications
team on standby.  Without detail of form and function it is dif icult to get clarity on how to progress.
2

CONFIDENTIAL TO BOARD MEMBERS ONLY

Conversations will be needed between ADHB, MoH and ourselves.   To date, the Board have only had
one formal piece of correspondence on this matter. The ODNZ contract with ADHB has been rolled over
until the end of June 2020.

  J Blue stressed the need to go to the Minister’s of ice as this has become urgent. S Clif e noted that if this
gets into the public arena without input from NZBS and ODNZ, it won’t reflect well on either organisation.
The Bill could potentially be public on Tuesday 12 March 2019. S Clif e reiterated that we haven’t seen
the Cabinet paper that led to approval for the Organ Donation Strategy. P Martin commented that we
need more clarity, if all the Ministry do is change the name on the contract, then nothing would change as
far as increasing donors. NZBS need to be resourced and mandated to generate mature debate with New
Zealand around deceased organ donation.  It was noted that NZBS would likely have a name change.  S
Cliffe acknowledged the current situation is extremely frustrating, and that there is so much that could be
done and feels that NZBS could add value quite quickly. We could put good governance in place and over
time we could have these conversations with the people of New Zealand.

  D Chamberlain reiterated he would fol ow this up with the Minister. There was discussion on the political
sensitivity around this.  It was also noted that the ODNZ Clinical Director, Stephen Streat had signal ed his
desire to step down at the end of June.  S Clif e commented that she would struggle with ODNZ recruiting
a new Clinical Director at this time. The incoming NZBS CMO has already questioned if she would be
accountable for organ donation clinical management.

12.2  Board Health & Safety visits:
•  B Baker advised he will visit the static site in Palmerston North.
•  F Pimm will visit the Christchurch Blood bank. It was noted that the Blood Bank at Christchurch
Hospital is currently in the lower basement in cramped conditions. There is a pressing unresolved
issue of where the Blood Bank wil  be situated in the new hospital. NZBS has had contact with
Richard Seigne, Chair of the Transfusion Commit ee and he advised there was a meeting on 15
March where the location of the Blood Bank would be discussed. S Clif e wil  put F Pimm in touch
with Rebecca Horder from NZBS who can brief her on the outcome of the meeting before her
Health & Safety visit.
•  B Baker noted that there are no scheduled visits to Auckland Blood bank.  S Clif e responded
that none of the Board have been to the refurbished Blood Bank at Auckland hospital and advised
that B Baker is welcome to go to both the Auckland and Palmerston North Blood Banks.

3.4
Matters Arising (Not Covered Elsewhere)
J Blue referred to page 2, item 3.2 on the 6 December 2018 meeting minutes regarding action 11.2 on EAP services. She
queried if S Cliffe had concerns about that fact that one of the leading causes of self-referral was anxiety. S Cliffe
responded that she doesn’t believe this is workplace anxiety, more a societal shift with more focus on mental health and
wel being.  S.9 (2) (a)
. S Cliffe
also noted that she is aware that there have been instances of staff cashing up additional leave. This had been discussed
operational y and she wanted to see staf  taking their leave. The requests tended to be more to be from Auckland based
staff (usually hardship), and she signs these off only when recommended by managers.  It was also highlighted that
average sick leave across the organisation is eight days annual y.  S Clif e advised that this is not high when compared
across the Health Sector and that the Health & Safety team monitor this closely.

ITEM 4.0  CHAIRMAN’S REPORT

D Chamberlain reported that he had received an email yesterday from a 75-year-old donor who complained that we
informed him he can no longer donate plasma because of his age.  P Flanagan is responding to that complaint and wil
speak to the donor personally. S Cliffe noted that the criteria is clear and there is discretion until a donor’s 76th birthday.
Post 75 years there is an annual medical and with apheresis the limit is 71 years of age. P Flanagan’s view is we could
possibly align plasma and whole blood age limits, but this would need to go through Medsafe. We are looking into his
case noting P Flanagan is very prompt in dealing with these issues.

3

CONFIDENTIAL TO BOARD MEMBERS ONLY

ITEM 5.0  SELECT COMMITTEE RESPONSE APPROVAL
The following points were discussed:
•  The comments that F Pimm sent by email were taken on board and changes made.
•  J Blue had comments on some of the information that she would take of  line with S Clif e.
•  J Blue noted that some of the figures around turnover looked as if they were transposed incorrectly as they were
dif erent in dif erent answers – S Clif e undertook to check this.
•  C Lancaster noted the eTraceline go live date in question 10g should have been 2017 not 2018.
•  S Clif e advised that we last appeared before the Health Select Commit ee in 2017
•  S Clif e noted that the finance team did an outstanding job along with V Siddins in pul ing all the data together.
•  The final version of the response document wil  be posted in the resources area of Diligent.

ITEM 6.0  CEO REPORT

S Clif e reported that there is a high level of excitement within the organisation around our key initiatives. However, we
need to ask ourselves if we are trying to do too much?  We shouldn’t underestimate impact of the redevelopment at
Dilworth House.  There is a huge impact on J Harrison and it also radiates out to the teams.  During the stage 3 laboratory
redevelopment, every piece of equipment wil  have to be moved and revalidated which will be a huge amount of work.  It’s
going to be a chal enging year due to the redevelopment and the planning around Organ Donation transition. This will tie
up resource and we need to be realistic about some of the pressures on the organisation.

Therapeutics Products Bill
Meredith Smith, our Director Quality & Regulatory Af airs is working closely with the Ministry who have indicated that due
to the specialised nature of our work, NZBS is a special case.  Our team have been to workshops with the Ministry and
have further conversations planned. P Martin queried if there would be any impacts from the Bil  on ISBT 128?  There may
be requirements under the new Bil  that mean we have to move to ISBT 128 which S Clif e noted might be useful if this
were the case to justify the price increase to DHBs.  D Chamberlain noted that in the past there was fear as to how a
change to this Bil  would impact on costs for the organisation. S Clif e commented that harmonising the legislation would
bring in best industry practice and she would welcome a bet er regulatory framework. For example, private orthopaedic
surgeons import bone and are currently unregulated, whereas our tissue bank has bone and is highly regulated through
IANZ and Medsafe. It was noted that laboratories are regulated but others including private surgeons and the medical
school are not.

Whangarei Blood Bank
The Blood Bank at Whangarei are currently trying to introduce a new staf  model. As of yesterday, some of the support
NZBS provides ceased, although they know we are on the end of the phone if they need help. There have not been any
incidents reported recently. At this stage we believe they are safe and they will likely go for IANZ re-accreditation in May
2019. Communications will go to them today from S Cliffe stating which corrective actions are outstanding and that we
are here to help. Rosters have historically not been strong enough with more scientists needed during the day and more
on cal  during the night. Our team have done a good job supporting the Blood Bank and have gone above and beyond the
call of duty.

Christmas closures
This wasn’t a perfect situation as we were possibly too cautious and risk averse. We did better with collections than we
expected which gave us more confidence to real y look at the numbers. Lessons have been learnt, and there was an
interesting dynamic around managing the process. C Lancaster reflected that this was a good example to sector about
how we are trying to keep costs down.  S Cliffe noted that it also reduced some of our leave liability. It is worth noting that
some centres such as Epsom and Christchurch wil  never close during these periods.

Chief Medical Officer recruitment
Sarah Morley is commencing her appointment on 10 June 2019 and wil  be a great addition to the organisation. P Flanagan
will undertake her supervision with Professor Peter Browet  as the secondary supervisor. The information about this
appointment is still confidential.

4

CONFIDENTIAL TO BOARD MEMBERS ONLY

NZBS 2018/19 Statement of Performance Expectation
The NZBS Statement of Performance Expectation was tabled in the House on 13 February 2019. S Clif e noted we had
not yet received our 2019/20 Let er of Expectation. It was noted that S Cliffe had received a call from the Ministry asking
if there was anything that she would like put in the Let er of Expectation that would be helpful to NZBS.

6.1
NZBS Strategic Priorities
S Cliffe advised that this is work in progress and will never be perfect. We needed to find a way of presenting it that made
sense for us. Items below the red line have not been commit ed to yet, and those above the line are currently being worked
on or wil  be in the next three months.  It gives a sense of multiple streams of activity, working smarter and more ef iciently
and get ing KPIs in there that make a dif erence. Items in red boxes we have to do, are already work in progress or
regulatory. The green boxes denote agreed resource.
Donating Kindness is our anti-bul ying toolkit for difficult conversations.  This fal s within the people and capability plan and
there is a lot of activity in this space. We have real diversity in age and culture within the organisation and we want to
leverage their strengths as well as understand their needs.  We often ask staff to put their hands up for projects, but it
always tends to be the same people.  We have some female staff (predominantly Chinese/Indonesian) that don’t put their
hands up and we don’t want them to be overtaken by col eagues. We want to see what sits underneath this pool of fabulous
women who quietly, diligently work in the background. F Pimm commented that this may be a cultural dynamic. We are
using a new productivity model to determine how many staff we need and some of our Business Improvement work
dovetails in this. These productivity models are hugely beneficial, but can be a bit chal enging because it represents change
but people are now starting to shift their mindset.
Document refresh – we currently have 6000 active documents and the document burden is huge which gets in the way of
staff doing their work.  Every time we make a change we have to change SOPs, we can’t remove them, but we are looking
at how to get reduce the burden. The amount of work managing documents to comply with regulations is huge.
We are working alongside the Government CIO around Cloud strategy. This won’t touch core blood systems eg. eTraceline
and eProgesa. Office 365 wil  be one of the first items to move into the cloud. Moving to the cloud is expected to save us
money over time and we have a lot of systems that wil  benefit including our donor registration system, blood bank
analysers, logistics etc.  We plan to streamline the process for regular donors with an electronic health questionnaire which
wil  help improve the donor experience.
Plasma Strategy – we are working on a consolidated plan for our ongoing approach for supply of plasma products and
currently have a team working on this. The strategy wil  come back to the Board for sign of .
Below the line is our DRM system (donor registration), we are the only organisation in the world using our current system
and this will need to go out to tender in the near future.
ISBT 128 is in the planning stages of developing the business case.
S Clif e advised that any further areas the Board wanted to know about, she could provide more detail.
C Lancaster advised that she liked the layout and would like to formalise this at Board level. Perhaps chose the top four
or five and report on them, like we have done for the RATA project. F Pimm also liked format and the way it connected
things together.  S Clif e noted that she has told the Exec that if projects are not scoped properly they will come of  the list.
It was also noted that there is a lot of activity that doesn’t appear at al , mostly business as usual, support for Whangarei
Blood Bank and business improvement work.
S Clif e noted that the RATA project was progressing bet er than it had been. Some teams had been using it for six months
now and the burden on team leaders has reduced. It was explained for the newer board members that this project threw
up how many anomalous agreements we had, there were multiple across the organisation. There had also been IT
chal enges, with issues around wifi which was frustrating for staf  and managers.  Teams were able to override the system
when wifi didn’t work. C Lancaster suggested it would be useful for someone to talk to Southern DHB, as they are at the
same point in process, albeit with different software.  J Harrison noted that the process had flushed out local practices that
weren’t necessarily best practice. D Chamberlain queried if there were money saving on rostering? S Clif e responded
that rostering is being done more appropriately, but we need to overlay it with the awards. The new system gives team
leaders more time to do their core roles, it’s a big shift from the heavy paper and resource process we have migrated from.

5

CONFIDENTIAL TO BOARD MEMBERS ONLY

The Board received and noted the CEO report.
Motion by:
B Baker
Seconded by:  F Pimm
Carried:
Al  present in favour

6.2
71 GSR Redevelopment – Project Governance Update

71 Great South Road Redevelopment
J Harrison noted was a comprehensive report as a lot had happened over the past couple of months.  Unfortunately, we
are stil  waiting for Ministry approval which could potential y pause the tendering process for stages 2 and 2a. Fortuitously
we had extended the tender timeframe to make sure a good number of tenders were received. S Clif e read out the
following email dated 27 February 2019 from Alex Beedel  at the Ministry:
‘The redevelopment paper is currently with the Treasury. We are conscious of the paper's importance to NZBS'
operations and wil  continue to work with the Treasury to ensure it has all the information it needs to approve the
final draft. Jenny and I have a meeting to discuss the paper with Minister Clark's of ice this afternoon, we wil  use
this as an opportunity to brief staf  before the paper is submit ed to the Ministers of Health and Finance for
approval.
As the paper is the Ministry's advice to the Minister you'l  appreciate that until it is read by Minister Clark it remains
confidential. However, I can confirm that the paper includes NZBS' advice on the redevelopment together with
information from the 2018/19 SPE, the scoping document and the information that the Ministry requested from
NZBS last month
Please let me know if you require any further information. I wil  be in touch to confirm once the paper has been
submit ed to the Ministers of Health and Finance.’

C Lancaster queried if this is something the Chair needed to raise with the Minister? D Chamberlain agreed he would do
so. (ACTION 2.1)
J Harrison noted an equity injection from the Ministry would be the best outcome for NZBS if the delay is because they are
seriously considering this option. S Clif e highlighted that if this were the case it would mean we could begin the ISBT
project next year. J Harrison advised that everything was progressing wel  with all key stakeholder relationships involved
in  the  redevelopment. Our internal communications  mechanism was working wel  with pro-active communications to
affected staff around alerting staf  to deliveries and noisy works. The delivery schedules have mainly been early mornings
or evenings and we work around donor opening hours. Weekly videos are posted for staff to view showing the progress.
Our Project Manager, David Kruger has been bril iant, he is strong on Health & Safety and he has been good at engaging
with GHD and holding them to agreed timelines.
Al  parts of the stage 2 have now been out for tendering and by the end of 2019 calendar year all of level 1, site works,
drive around, yard upgrade should be in place. Stage three is a dif erent dynamic with the accreditation, validation and
interface with Medsafe causing stage 3 timelines to be extended. We wil  see Auckland processing work shifted to other
facilities for a period and wil  continue to plan for completion by late 2021.
The cost envelope is being tested now we know more, but overall J Harrison felt we were fine given the level of contingency
in the original cost envelope.  As Chair of the Redevelopment Steering Group J Harrison felt good progress had been
made and was very pleased to have David Kruger as Project Manager along with Louise Dibley as Technical Project
Manager for workstream 3. NZBS has ensured the redevelopment activity has been appropriately resourced.

B Baker asked for J Harrison to talk through $the 1.3m cost for the basement? J Harrison advised it had become clear
from the planning to date that the basement space would need to be utilised.  As well the detailed planning work done with
logistics demonstrated it would also make sense to use the basement area.
J Harrison advised the basement cost was indicative at this point and may be reduced with more planning. Utilising the
basement wil  give us bet er storage facilities and also more space for future logistics expansion. J Harrison confirmed
the basement spend was in the 2019/20 capital plan to be funded out of our own reserves. D Chamberlain queried long
term storage in Auckland if Hamilton is seen as one of the seismically safest places in New Zealand.
6

CONFIDENTIAL TO BOARD MEMBERS ONLY

F Pimm referred to the let er from Minister on skil s development in tenders and asked how we have included this in our
tenders? S Clif e responded that NZBS were not running the tenders but we made sure that GHD who ran the tenders
included this question in their tender requests
The Board received and noted the CEO report.
Motion by:
B Baker
Seconded by:  F Pimm
Carried:
Al  present in favour

ITEM 7.0  DECISION PAPERS
7.1
Audit NZ audit fee settings – 3 Years to 30 June 2021
J Harrison presented the Audit NZ fees set ing for the three years to 30 June 2021, noting it is slightly north of CPI accepting
in subsequent years they wil  have more work to do around the redevelopment. It was noted that this was not a contestable
process.
F Pimm commented that if it’s non-contestable the Board has no choice but to accept it?  J Harrison clarified that we could
contest the fees but not the organisation carrying out the audit.  It was noted that Audit NZ general y spend more hours
than they al ocate for the audit and that we give them high quality working papers.  J Harrison also noted that he accepts
they have ongoing costs of retaining staf  operating within a sought after high turnover sector. Over the last 4-5 years we
have seen a significant improvement in the quality of staff.  F Pimm advised that of al  the Boards she sits on this is the
most smoothly run audit.
S Clif e commented that she had confidence in both our Finance team, and the Audit NZ team.  J Harrison noted that this
is Athol Graham’s final year as NZBS auditor and that Jo Smaill would be the new auditor for the final two financial years
of the three year audit term. J Blue commented that she had worked with Jo Smaill at the Human Right’s Commission
and had always had a good working relationship with her.
Motion:
The Board approved the proposed audit fee settings and authorised the Chairman to sign the proposal to
conduct the audit as acknowledgement of NZBS acceptance of the proposed audit fee set ings for the 3
years to 30 June 2021.
Motion by:
C Lancaster
Seconded by:  J Blue
Carried:
Al  present in favour

7.2
2019/20 Refreshed Budget and 3 Year Outlook
S Cliffe advised that fol owing last month’s teleconference it was understood that the Board were reasonably comfortable
and in agreement with the proposed budget and that not a lot has changed in this refreshed version.
J Blue asked about the significance of Monofix. It was explained that this used to be a product manufactured during
fractionation, but as it was being prescribed for one patient that patient had been moved to recombinant product.
J Harrison noted that the first cut was completed off five month indications but the seven month forecast af orded a better
outlook for the financial year. The refreshed budget has come of  a higher base, with the refreshed revenue level driven
by demand across the board. It’s been a positive refresh with the banking governance criteria now sitting within the required
ratios although NZBS still exceeded the 37.5% debt cap. The Financial Guidelines Policy will be presented to Board next
month. Demand level in February has been sustained with revenue around $10.3m expected driven by IVIg demand
which showed no sign of slowing. C Lancaster queried any further insight on the increases? C Clif e noted we were
hoping that the rol out of the IgO app (electronic approval system for Immunoglobulin) wil  give us a much bet er granular
view and we’l  be able to see what the decisions were driving the increases.  B Baker commented that it can be down to
one new prescriber from overseas for instance a doctor that has come from Australia, they can have dif erent views on
what they prescribe.  S Cliffe noted that our thresholds are strictly enforced, and we may find the IgO app actually reduces
demand.
D Chamberlain agreed that this is a slight improvement and if no further discussion, it can be left to S Cliffe to present the
increase to Rosemary Clements, lead DHB CEO.
7

CONFIDENTIAL TO BOARD MEMBERS ONLY

J Blue queried if we are nervous about keeping up with demand?  S Clif e noted that the only concern was being able to
collect enough source plasma to meet fractionated product needs. We can flex but need lead time to do this we do know
what we need to do for expected growth. This is linked to the piece of work we are doing on the Plasma Product Strategy
and we need to understand that self-suf iciency comes at a cost., it was noted that IVIg has traditionally been volatile and
can be driven by one or two new users. There was further discussion on the ethical framework around the stewardship of
voluntary blood donations and the ethics around the supply of blood to private hospitals paid for by the public system.
Motion:
The Board formal y approved the refreshed 2019/20 budget plus 3 year financial outlook in the knowledge
the approved financials wil  be incorporated in the 2019/20 Statement of Performance Expectations, the
first draft of which wil  be presented to the March 2019 Board meeting for its consideration.
Motion by:
C Lancaster
Seconded by:  J Blue
Carried:
Al  present in favour

ITEM 8.0  DISCUSSION PAPERS
8.1
Audit NZ Audit Plan for the financial year ending 30 June 2019
Audit NZ highlighted the focus of the coming audit in addition to normal their audit duties:
•  Redevelopment of 71 GSR
•  Planned organ donation administration change from ADHB to NZBS
•  Inventory
J Harrison advised this was the Board’s opportunity to feedback any other mat er they wanted Audit NZ to review.
The Board received and noted the let er from Audit NZ with no additional items to be added.
Motion by:
P Martin
Seconded by:  J Blue
Carried:
Al  present in favour

ITEM 9.0  MONTHLY / REGULAR REPORTS
9.1
Director Finance’s Report – Financial Performance – 7 months to 31 January 2019
J Harrison took the paper as read and noted that January was an excel ent month with revenue of $11.34m. Pooling
generated favourable outcomes and improved the reported result. The higher expiry was due to the Christmas closures
where some over collection did occur. Within the term deposit portfolio, rates had tracked up with BNZ now holding $4m
of the portfolio. The treasury management saw buy orders placed at good rates that raised our weighted cover, noting
going forward any contracts north of 0.95 represented good buying. J Harrison was happy with the treasury management
and how we are travel ing.  The Production Plan is in the process of being updated which could influence the ful  year
outlook if changes are made. The spot rate at the end June is expected to see a strong Kiwi dollar wel  above 0.95 which
wil  adversely impact the ful  year result when marked to market.
Renewal of the Dilworth deed of lease and rental agreement is work in progress and wil  be bought back to the Board on
completion of negotiations.
Motion:
The Board received and noted the Director Finance’s report.

Motion by:
J Blue
Seconded by:  F Pimm
Carried:
Al  present in favour

8

CONFIDENTIAL TO BOARD MEMBERS ONLY

9.2
Q2 MoH Monitoring Report – 3 Months to 31 December 2018

It was noted that the headline achievements/activities on page 109 contains a good summary of this report. J Harrison
clarified that FACT refers to ISBT 128.
J Blue referred to performance measure 4.3 with reference to not achieving the targets for recruiting Maori and youth
donors.  S Clif e noted that this is influenced by our ability to access schools and universities. It’s good awareness to go
to schools, but we can have up to 50% deferral rates, therefore we won’t always exactly achieve our targets around youth.
With our Maori/Pacific  targets, this is more about converting  to  the  bone marrow registry  because the registry has
insuf icient Maori donors at present.
J Blue noted the increasing demand around plasma collection which was focused on male donors. S Clif e noted male
donors can be for fresh plasma or frozen source plasma for fractionation, it can be either. S Clif e noted other countries
are moving away from testing each donation for source plasma for fractionation and B Baker explained that fractionated
product doesn’t pass on anything because of what is done with the manufacturing process.
S Clif e noted that the Carter Marshal  report from 1996 is worth reading as it describes how the Ministry operates, the
fragmented system and the need for one Blood Service.  This report can be found in Diligent resource library under ‘Board
– Other Resources’
Motion:
The Board received and noted the Quarter 2 MoH Monitoring Report

Motion by:
C Lancaster
Seconded by:  B Baker
Carried:
Al  present in favour

9.3
Q2 Health & Safety Report – 3 Months to 31 December 2018
S Cliffe noted that we had amended our Driver Medical Policy and that this is now back with the union for their acceptance.
Work related incidents are up with mobiles featuring highly. We are working on a strategy for mobile operations, particularly
around set up/pack down.  We have an aging workforce, with many smal er, older and female staf  working on the mobiles.
We are looking at put ing some of the set up/pack down work out to contractors, but we are not sure if we will be large
enough to at ract a national contractor. S Cliffe noted the set up/pack down is hard work and often completed in overtime.
We are also tendering for new beds which will be easier to manoeuvre. It’s also noted that we take more stock than we
need on the mobiles. There was further discussion around specialised vehicles with donor beds and interview rooms
inside. D Chamberlain commented that his impression of our mobiles is that they are big old and clunky. S Cliffe noted
that this organisation is good at the technical side of what it does, but the donor side has been neglected. We want to give
donors the best most ef icient service and mobiles are 50% of whole blood col ections.  We have recently piloted in
Auckland the return of cheese and crackers and donors love that it’s back.
Motion:
The Board received and noted the Quarter 2 Health & Safety Report
Motion by:
  P Martin
Seconded by:    F Pimm
Carried:
  Al  present in favour

ITEM 10.0  INFORMATION PAPERS
10.1
Contracts & Leases Register
S Cliffe noted the next big contract to be signed wil  be with Atlantis for our Cal  Centre operations.

The Contracts and Leases register was provided for information to the Board and was received and noted.

ITEM 11.0  CORRESPONDENCE

11.1
Letter from SSC - Information sharing Model Standards – 19 December 2019
S Cliffe noted that there may be issues under the positive vet ing that we do. With reference to our secondary employment
policy, the CEO signs of  all requests.
9

CONFIDENTIAL TO BOARD MEMBERS ONLY

J Blue queried what happens if a donor is found to be HIV positive and doesn’t want their GP notified?  B Baker advised
that the issue is between the donor and the TMS. HIV is only notifiable to the public health authority as a measuring
mechanism and doesn’t trace back to patients.

This letter was noted by the Board.

11.2
Letter from MoH – Changes to the Procurement of Construction Projects 19 December 2019
This letter was noted by the Board.

ITEM 12.0  GENERAL BUSINESS
There were no items of general business.

ITEM 13.0  BOARD MATTERS

13.1
Board Work Programme and Calendar 2019
The NZBS Board Work Programme and Calendar 2019 was taken as read.

13.2
NZBS Board Member Tenure Timetable
The NZBS Board Member Tenure Timetable was taken as read.

ITEM 14.0  NEXT MEETING
The next Board meeting wil  be on 28 March 2019 at 71 Great South Road, Epsom.

Close of Meeting:  The meeting closed at 2.30pm.

Certified as a true and correct record:

________________________________
David Chamberlain – Board Chairman

10