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| Author | Topic: Fighting the Cuts |
| Graham Stuart |
posted 1/3/07 2:00 PM
All across England community hospital beds and hospitals are being closed. Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) are responsible for health provision in each local area but are unelected and unaccountable to anyone other than the Secretary of State for Health. So we have local PCTs carrying out closures at the behest of the Government while ministers deny responsibility, saying that the decisions are being made locally. Local people struggle to influence the PCT's decisions because nobody on the PCT has to be re-elected. It's a Catch 22 and hard to defeat. What we can do is take the Government at face value and try to make them honour the promises which they have made. For instance they say that changes ("reconfigurations") of health care should be made with people and not just for them. They have also laid down requirements for consultations to be conducted before changes are made (I used this legally to challenge the PCT's attempt to close Hornsea's beds in September). So, taking the Government at face value, we need to use the consultation to show such a level and such a unanimity of opposition to the proposals that it is impossible for the PCT to proceed or the Government to defend them doing so. Marches and petitions have been arranged. I thought this thread could discuss other ways that we could fight the proposals. Please could you post any ideas below.Thanks, Graham Stuart MP http://www.grahamstuart.com [This message has been edited on 01/09/2007] |
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