Council fears on future of hospital

3:13pm Thursday 29th May 2008

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A POLITICAL storm is brewing in Chippenham after North Wiltshire District Council's overview and scrutiny committee split over the future of Chippenham Hospital.

Last week committee chairman Chris Caswell was replaced by Coun Christine Reid, a paid non-executive member of Wiltshire Primary Care Trust which runs the hospital.

Coun Caswell has called three times for the trust to be brought in front of the committee to explain what is going on at the hospital, but each time his proposal was overruled.

He, along with Chippenham Liberal Democrats, is convinced the trust will escape future questioning from the district council.

He said: "There is so much confusion about the future of the hospital and the whole point of a scrutiny committee is to independently review what is going on.

"We have been blocked by doing this on several occasions and now I have been ousted and replaced by a paid member of the PCT.

"I have always taken my role incredibly seriously and some members have not appreciated this.

"In fact, the Conservative members of the committee have indicated that they think the scrutiny committee should be closed down altogether.

"We have asked the trust to come in and try and shine some light on what it is they are doing with the hospital and this has not happened.

"It is of pressing public interest that we all know exactly what is happening with our hospital - every action of the trust should be available for scrutiny.

"This is a major blow for Chippenham because the trust will now have a certain degree of protection from future scrutiny."

Coun Reid has defended her new position within the committee, but has conceded her work with the trust could cause problems.

She said: "I said, before I was elected chair, that I, as a member of the PCT, was prepared to answer questions about the issue.

"I agree with Chris that this is now something that it is difficult for me to do now that I chair the committee, and so I will be circulating copies of PCT papers, all of which are in the public domain, but which councillors are unlikely to have seen.

"District councils do not scrutinise the NHS. We each send a representative to be a member of the joint health overview and scrutiny committee. They alone have the power to send conclusions to the Secretary of State for Health which can overturn an NHS decision.

"Chris wanted the overview and scrutiny committee to scrutinise the Chippenham Hospital bed closure decision and seemed to refuse to accept that we did not have a role.

"I am confident that someone from the PCT would be happy to come and talk to any district councillors."

Chippenham GP Nick Brown is worried about the bed closures and urged patients to contact him and PCT board chairman Tony Barron,with their concerns.

He said: "I urge any readers who have experience of inadequate service provision to tell both their GPs , Mr Barron and their locally elected representatives about their experiences. Patients and their carers should not be expected to suffer in silence."