The Tyneside Kidney Patients'
Associations is a private charity. This means that:
Our meetings are private meetings for members only
unless we invite non-members to attend. Even then we have the right
to either refuse entry, or ask someone to leave if we have a good
reason to do so.
Our minutes are private. We are prepared to let
members examine specific minutes with the permission of the
committee.
We are not governed by legislation for public
bodies such as the Human Rights Act or Freedom of Information Act
Executive Committee. The committee
functions under the rules of our Constitution. There are some additional
facts
The committee members are the Trustees of
the Tyneside KPA. We do not have a separate
board of trustees. Under charity legislation committee members are
regarded as trustees.
Co-opted members cannot be trustees. Committee
members can only be elected at an AGM, so
co-opted members can only become full committee members if they
are elected at the next AGM.
The committee has to have the post of the 4
Honorary Members filled to be valid.
If one resigns or dies the
vacant post should be filled to keep the committee as a valid
functioning body.
If a committee member, who does not hold an
honorary post resigns or dies the committee
is still valid but would normally hope to co-opt a replacement..
What happens if a trustee disagree about a decision taken
by the committee? It is very helpful in examining all sides of an issue
being debated to have different opinions. However once a motion has been passed, to
pursue a course of action, all members are expected to fully support that
decision. This is commonly referred to as "collective responsibility".
Should a member be unable to support that decision they should resign.
Insurance Cover Does the Tyneside KPA have insurance cover for its meetings
and social events?Yes, with Attend to the value of £10 million for events
we put on. We also
have cover with the National Kidney Federation over any statements we make.
Individual Support.
Do you offer counselling? No. We do not have people who
are qualified and meet the legal requirements to describe our support work as
counselling. We offer direct support and at times can also acts as advocates. We
can also offer support over the telephone. What we do is to answer questions and use our
own experience to give help.
Do you give medical advice? No. If we are asked to do
so we ask the questioner to contact a doctor.
Complaints Over Health Care. If and
when things go badly wrong in an aspect of patient care a patient or carer
has a right to complaint. There are formal complaint procedures that
should be used. The first thing to do is to record everything that
happened. Then ask for advice from hospital staff about making a
complaint.
Will the Tyneside KPA make complaints on behalf of members?
No we will not make official complaints for individuals. However we will
help patients make them. Making a complaint
is a formal process that can have serious implications, so we have to be very
careful about getting involved.
Will the Tyneside KPA take action if there is a
problem affecting a lot of patients? Yes depending on the problem. We
believe the best way to improve things is to work with hospital staff
rather than to be confrontational. So we will first use an informal
approach. We meet regularly with senior renal staff and can raise problems
with them so we can work with them to improve the situation.
National Kidney Federation (NKF)
The Tyneside KPA is a member of the NKF.
All our members also become members of
the NKF and get Kidney Life.
We do not pay a subscription. Instead the NKF
sends all members their annual raffle tickets. These are drawn at
the NKF Autumn Conference.
We normally have some of our members going to
Conference and give them some financial support.
