Trust meetings
- All Trusts Must Now Hold Board Meetings In Public. Dobson Welcomes
Trust's Innovative Efforts To Involve Local People In Decision-Making.
Department
of Health Press Release 98/055 Tuesday 10th February 1998
- Clinical
issues: boards accused of neglect. The NHS Clinical Governance Support
Team has said that trust boards should spend less time discussing finance and
pay more attention to patient care. Some boards devote 90% of boardroom
agendas to finance, while patient care or clinical issues are allotted only
10% of the time. Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of Health Service Journal 2
February 2006
-
Hospital chiefs to
meet in secret. Health bosses at
Wythenshawe Hospital have voted to stop holding monthly board meetings in
public in order to protect commercial information. There are no plans to
release agendas or minutes from the meetings, however some information will be
provided to patients' representatives. NHS hospitals are required to hold open
meetings unless discussing sensitive information. But Wythenshawe has more
freedom because it is a
foundation trust. Both Steeping Hill Hospital and Hope Hospital made
similar decisions when they achieved foundation status, however, Christie
Hospital decided to continue holding public meeting as their aim is to be
"transparent". Yasmin Zalzala, a regular attendee of Wythenshawe's board
meetings, said: "I am furious about the decision. I think it is wrong that
they should be deciding how to use public money in private. We keep hearing
how patients should have more information and more choice in the NHS, but this
seems to be going the opposite way." Jeff Wilner, chairman of the University
Hospital of South Manchester, said: "We do not get many people at our meetings
and we often make commercially sensitive decisions. We have almost 9,000
members and they elect a council or representatives, and they will be invited
to our board meetings four times a year. They will be given an appropriate
minute of our meetings. We have found we are repeating items in the public and
private sessions and it is not an efficient use of our time." A spokeswoman
for the Christie said: "Since becoming a Foundation Trust in April, we have
continued to hold our board meetings in public. We will always endeavour to be
as open as we can with the public." Martin Rathfelder, of Manchester Health
Watchdog, said: "Board meetings across Manchester have become less open as
trusts are increasingly run as businesses. It makes me wonder what they are
talking about in private that they do not want people to know about. I am not
very happy - public organisations should make their decisions public."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Manchester
Evening News 17 July 2007 [a significant step backwards from 1998]
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