Correspondence - SHCN: Scottish Health Campaigns Network

The proposal to have members of health boards elected by the public as a pilot study in selected urban and rural areas reflects the views of the Scottish Health Campaigns Network.

This organisation came into being as a direct result of the concerns of several communities throughout the country which felt threatened by the potential loss of vital local health related services. The growing wave of discontent led to the production of a report from an advisory panel led by Professor David Kerr which considered the various implications in the move towards centralisation.

None the less, the relevant health boards pressed ahead with plans to close Accident and Emergency departments at Monklands and Ayr Hospitals.

The independent scrutiny panel established by the present Health Secretary concluded that the evidence on which the decisions were based did not stand up to examination and these decisions were reversed.

Major decisions are currently being made by health boards with insufficient time being afforded to all members to study the information prior to board meetings, a situation which contributes to a lack of democracy in the provision of health care to communities.

The Scottish Health Campaigns Network considers that the inclusion of directly elected members to health boards will lead to a greater degree of transparency and democracy and will go some way towards restoring confidence and trust in those bodies.

Printed on Question List on day but due to position on List was not dealt with as such. I await a written reply.

John Winton
Local Health Concern

28 July 2007

Scottish Health Council
Fife Office

Dear Sirs

NHS FIFE REVIEW BY HEALTH MINISTER ON 13 AUGUST 07

I would like the following question to be put to the Health Minister as one of the public questions.

MINOR INJURY UNITS:

In the case of self attenders at above Units, some Units are adjacent to A & E trauma facilities and some are at a remote site. Prior to deciding to establish a Minor Injury Unit at Queen Margaret Hospital I assume some investigation of statistics was carried out. Can you give me the percentage of self attenders who subsequently had to be transferred to the Trauma Unit in A & E be it on the same site or on a remote site?

There must be evidence from Minor Injury Units in Scotland & England to produce these figures.

Yours faithfully

Dear Mr Kerr,

I am sorry that I have not written sooner to thank you for meeting us but I needed some time to gather my thoughts and speak to my colleagues. It also gives me the chance to congratulate you on your time for the Great Caledonian Run.

We found the meeting useful and hope that you did. Some of my colleagues will contact you individually however there are general observations upon which all representatives agree which I can summarise as follows:

The Health Service is a fundamental social good valued by all and providing excellent services to most of the people most of the time but there are substantial gaps and developing problems which can only be remedied by competent planning and management;

Health Boards are unaccountable to the people they claim to serve and are distrusted by them;

Consultation processes seeking the public's views on proposals and services are flawed in the main they comprise marketing exercises selling predetermined proposals to a sceptical public rather than engaging the people, accepting their views and adapting proposals accordingly.

The campaign groups are committed to improving standards of care and services and accept that improvement needs change but it must be for the better.

No one individual nor organisation has a monopoly on good ideas but their effective implementation demands that we all work together staff, agencies, patients and the public and this can only happen when the people are given their place.

We re-iterate our conviction shared by the English Health Service - that a basic principle governing service planning and development should be that appropriate services are provided locally and centralisation of facilities should only occur for regional specialist services.

It is clear that there are areas of common concern between the Executive and the campaign groups. We wish to co-operate in the development of practical proposals for service improvements in these areas and look forward to future meetings to enable this.

Kind regards,

Yours sincerely,

George Venters, Chairman