18 July 2003
The Commons' health select committee has criticised the Department of Health for creating two parallel systems for involving the public in the NHS.
In a report published this week, the MPs said they were astonished the two systems were being introduced in the same 12 months.
Community Health Councils will be replaced in part by Oversight and Scrutiny Committees, which will have patients and public representatives, while there will be seats for the public on foundation trusts' elected boards of governors.
'We wanted to place on record our amazement that throughout the… comprehensive parliamentary discussions that preceded the establishment of the new system [for CHCs], the government's plans for a second, more radical overhaul of patient involvement… were never brought to light,' said David Hinchliffe, the committee's chair.
CHCs were due to be abolished in September but the department put this back to December. The health committee said this had created confusion and CHCs should continue until July 2004.
PFjul2003
