Health

Health & Personal Social Services and Higher Education in Northern Ireland: Managing A Special Relationship

Diarmuid KennedyFaculty Librarian (Medicine & Health Sciences, QUB)6 September 2004

Health & Personal Social Services and Higher Education in Northern Ireland: Managing A Special Relationship

• Department of Health, Personal Social Services and Public Safety (DHSSPS) – Overview

• Queen’s University Belfast – Overview

• The Service Level Agreement

• The Medical Library – Structure, Activities & Developments

• QUB & DHSSPS – Synergies & Challenges

DHPSSPS - Overview

• The DHSSPS (Department of Health, Social Services & Public Safety) is Northern Ireland’s Health Department.

• The DHSSPS deals with policy and legislation for hospitals, social services, food safety, community health and so on.

• Health and Social Services are delivered by 4 regional Health Boards comprising of 18 Trusts. The Boards and Trusts employ over 50,000 people.

DHSSPS – OverviewBoards and Trusts

• Northern (3 Trusts)

• Southern (4 Trusts)

• Western (3 Trusts)

• Eastern (8 Trusts)

• Over 50% of all staff are employed by the Eastern Board

DHSSPS - OverviewBoards and Trusts - Employees

Board and Trust Staffing Categories/Numbers:•Admin & Clerical 11,979•Works & Maintenance 554•Ancillary & General 7,478 •Nursing, Midwifery & Health Visiting 19,435 •Social Services 4,566•Professional & Technical 5,779•Medical & Dental 3,227•Ambulance 806

Queen’s University Belfast - Overview

• 17,500+ students, 3,500 university employees and around 1,600 academic and teaching staff

• Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences includes Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing & Midwifery

• Related university departments include Pharmacy, Biomedical Sciences, Psychology and Social Work

The Queen’s University Belfast - OverviewFaculty of Medicine and Health Sciences

• Staff (Academic)

Medicine – 136

Nursing – 120

Dentistry – 20

• Students (Undergraduate & Postgraduate)

Medicine – 1,346

Nursing & Midwifery – 1,801

Dentistry – 146

The Queen’s University Belfast - OverviewLibrary Services & Research Support

• Library services for the university are provided by the Library Services & Research Support division of the Information Services directorate.

• Library Services & Research Support encompasses general library services such as Circulation and Inter-Library Loans as well as subject support and research computing.

• Each Faculty is supported by a team of Subject Librarians and each library branch is supported by a user services team.

The Service Level Agreement

• A Service Level Agreement exists between the DHSSPS and Queens University to provide library and information services.

• The agreement is “to contribute to the quality of health and social care in Northern Ireland by helping health and social services staff to make effective use of the knowledge and information base contained within and made available through the Queen’s University Library, particularly the Medical Library.”

The Service Level Agreement

• The Medical Library has the dual role - supporting both the university staff and students, but also health professionals working for the DHSSPS

• All DHSSPS staff are entitled to join and use the library

• No formal division is made with regard to the function of library staff - both sets of users are supported by the same staff.

Medical LibraryPhysical Structure – Belfast Main Libraries

• The Medical Library

Located in the grounds of the Royal Victoria Hospital

Main physical resource for QUB and HPSS users

Medical and Healthcare Librarian and subject support team are based here

• The Biomedical Library

Located in Belfast City Hospital

Medical LibraryPhysical Structure – Outside Belfast

• Antrim Healthcare Library

Located in the Antrim Area Hospital

• Craigavon Health Care Library

Located in the Craigavon Area Hospital

• Altnagelvin Multi-Disciplinary Education Centre

Located at Altnagelvin Hospital

Medical LibraryPhysical Structure – Outside Belfast

• 3 Postgraduate Centres

Antrim, Dundonald & Craigavon

• 18 Medical/Multi-disciplinary Outliers

ranging from very small collections to large resource centres

• Social Service Outliers

Attached to Social Services Training Units (SSTUs) and those in the NI Guardian Ad Litem Agency offices

Medical LibraryGeneral Library Services

User Services• Headed by the Medical & Healthcare Librarian

• Responsible for Circulation Services Inter-Library Loans/Document delivery, general enquiry services, IT liaison and support etc.

Medical LibraryResearch Support Team

Research Support Team• Headed by the Faculty Librarian• Responsible for resource development in terms of books,

journals and electronic information services• Formal Team comprises: 3.5 professionals plus 1.5 library

assistants and has responsibility for Medicine, Dentistry, Allied Health Professionals and Nursing & Midwifery.

• Additional Support for DHSSPS users is provided by the subject librarians responsible for Psychology, Pharmacy and Social Work.

Medical LibraryActivity - DHSSPS Membership

• 13,146 DHSSPS staff are currently members of the library

• 2,620 Doctors and Dentists (80% of eligible DHSSPS staff)

• 1,546 Allied Health Professionals (58% of eligible staff)

• 6,161 Nurses, Midwives and Health Visitors (31% of eligible DHSSPS staff)

• 916 Social Workers (20% of eligible DHSSPS Staff)

Medical LibraryActivity – Issue Desk

• In 2003 the main Medical Branches issued over 111,000 items

• DHSSPS staff borrowed over 57,000 items

• Across all the main Medical Branches DHSSPS staff borrowed slightly more heavily then QUB students.

Medical LibraryActivity – Document Delivery

• The Main Medical Libraries processed over 16,000 British Library requests – over 13,000 were for DHSSPS members

• The Medical Library photocopying service copied over 15,000 articles in 2003 – the bulk being for DHSSPS members.

Medical LibraryActivity - Training

• Between August 2002 and July 2003 the faculty team delivered approximately 200 training sessions to nearly 2000 library users.

• Apart from ‘bulk’ student database training the majority of this activity was for DHSSPS staff.

Medical LibraryActivity – Journal Subscriptions

• The cost of journal subscriptions is shared between the university and by DHSSPS

• Over 1000 subscriptions current subscriptions to 6 locations

• Nearly 800 of these are held at the Medical Library

• The libraries at Belfast City and Altnagelvin Hospitals also maintain significant collections (around 100 subscriptions)

Medical LibraryActivity – Database/Full-Text Subscriptions

• QUB Staff and Students benefit from access to all university databases and full-text subscriptions and deals including BNI, Medline, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Web of Science etc.

• DHSSPS subscriptions are completely separate and include: PsycINFO, Medline, BNI, HMIC, CINAHL, CareData, ChildData, EBSCOhost, ProQuest Medical Library, and Ovid Full-Text Collections.

Medical Library – DevelopmentsHONNI

• HONNI (Health On the Net Northern Ireland) – a library and information portal for DHSSPS staff.

(www.honni.qub.ac.uk)

• Integrates new and existing DHSSPS services on a separate site

• Provides a more straightforward route to library and information for HPSS users

Medical Library – DevelopmentsNew Services

• New full-text services from ProQuest, Ovid and EBSCO

• DHSSPS subscription to zetoc

Medical Library – DevelopmentsAthens and Document Delivery

• Athens authentication for HPSS staff

• Online inter-loan request service for books and photocopies

QUB & DHSSPS – SynergiesTechnical Services

• Talis Library Management System

Circulation

Reservations

BL requests

• Union Catalogue

A specific HPSS catalogue is currently under development

• Subscription Management

QUB & DHSSPS – SynergiesTechnical Services

• IT Expertise and Liaison

Closer relations between the university and department/trust IT managers

University expertise in setting up access to electronic services

Improving access to IT for DHSSPS staff

QUB & DHSSPS - Synergies Resources and Expertise

• Single joint healthcare resource

Large, jointly funded, print resource that neither organisation could afford individually.

• DHSSPS access to QUB resources

DHSSPS enjoy access to all of the university’s print resources – in 2003 they made over 5000 loans from the other main QUB libraries.

QUB & DHSSPS - Synergies Resources and Expertise

• Subject Expertise

Training and responding to enquiries – knowledge and expertise built up in supporting one community has advantages in terms of quality of service to the other user group

QUB & DHSSPS – ChallengesChanging Service Landscape

• Increasingly electronic services must be negotiated on an entirely separate basis

• Services in general are becoming two separate entities

Athens

Catalogue

Document Delivery

• Staff and user confusion?

QUB & DHSSPS – ChallengesFeedback Mechanisms

• Difficult user groups with which to establish forums

Contract Monitoring Group - QUB has encouraged setting up such a body and has nominated representatives but has not managed to secure a first meeting yet

QUB & DHSSPS – ChallengesFeedback Mechanisms

• Funding mechanism means that “ownership” connection is unclear

Web-based survey currently being designed to establish journal title and format requirements and subject based funds (for both the university and the DHSSPS).

QUB & DHSSPS – ChallengesIT Development

• No university access to the HPSS network

• Poor network, particularly in rural areas

• Upgrading the status/importance of network access and library services within the DHSSPS

QUB & DHSSPS – ChallengesStatus within the DHSSPS

• The DHSSPS has no Library Authority or strategic development plan for library/information services

• Agreement is very general and does not specify any baseline electronic services

• Our role is open to interpretation – outside agents or health service agenda setters?