| |
Spend on NHS not sham consultation
• AT the meeting organised by Camden Keep Our National Health Service Public I was astonished to hear from the GP from Parliament Hill surgery that Camden NHS (aka Camden PCT) had interviewed bidders for the new GP-led healthcare centre on Hampstead Road on Wednesday.
How can this be, I thought to myself, when the consultation about whether there should be a GP led healthcare centre doesn’t close until October?
How can Camden NHS be interviewing for staff when they don’t know yet what local people will say?
Call me an idealist, but I believe that consultation means asking for opinions, having an open mind about what should happen, being prepared to listen to all sides of a debate.
A real consultation doesn’t include loaded questions, which are sent out to a selected few places (not to the general public) and a decision before the end what the result is going to be.
I’d call a consultation like that a waste of taxpayers’ (our) money which could be better spent elsewhere in the NHS.
I don’t understand why Camden NHS thinks local residents are so deserving of such arrogance.
Surely its attitude shows why we must now have elected local health boards.
If Camden NHS board members had to face local residents in an election once in a while, they might start to listen.
Jo Shaw
Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Campaigner
Holborn & St Pancras
Vote of no confidence
• THE packed public meeting in Somers Town last week delivered a clear message of no confidence in NHS Camden, formerly the primary care trust (PCT).
It had examined the so-called “public consultation” that the PCT has prepared regarding the proposed GP-led health centre in Camden, and learnt that the tenderers had already been interviewed and an announcement on the successful bidder was expected this week, even though the “consultation” is not due to be finished until October.
One speaker summed up the mood: “I started reading it and I was astonished. And by the time I finished reading I was outraged.”
The meeting unanimously supported a move to “vote ‘no’ for question eight”.
This, in the imprecise and vague document, is the question that gives those surveyed the closest chance to express their opposition to the proposed centre, which threatens to destabilise long-established and much valued existing GP practices.
The Camden Green Party supports this call, and will also be working to collect responses to the “alternative survey” the campaign is preparing.
This alternative survey will allow the respondents directly to address questions of concern, including those about the nature of providers (public or
for-profit), which the council’s health scrutiny committee had asked the PCT to include.
Natalie Bennett
Camden Green Party
South Camden Co-ordinator
|
 |
|
|
|
| |
| |
