A town council is calling for a halt to the controversial consultation process involving the closure of four community hospitals across south Devon amid claims that it is misleading and flawed.
Buckfastleigh councillors claim that health bosses have failed to comply with Government consultation principles and that the consultation questionnaire has been loaded with leading questions.
The councillors have drafted a hard-hitting letter of complaint to be sent to NHS England calling for the consultation process to be suspended, and they are calling on local councils, hospital leagues of friends and MPs to join them.
Buckfastleigh council chairman Pam Barrett said: ‘People are very concerned about the proposed closure of hospitals in south Devon and we think that, if such options are being considered, then the very least that should happen is that the consultation process is carried out in accordance with Government policy.
‘This clearly doesn’t appear to be the case at present.
‘We’re hoping that pointing this out to NHS England, hopefully with the backing of our local MPs, will have a strong impact.’
The South Devon & Torbay Clinical Commissioning Group is in the process of consulting over a major shake-up to the delivery of health services across the area, which includes the closure of hospitals at Ashburton, Dartmouth, Paignton and Bovey Tracey.
Public meetings have already been held as part of the consultation process at Ashburton, Buckfastleigh, Dartmouth and Brixham.
The last is due to go ahead at Totnes Civic Hall on Tuesday, October 11, at 6.30pm.
But this week Buckfastleigh councillors revealed that they are concerned that the process undertaken by the South Devon & Torbay
CCG fails on at least four of the Government’s consultation principles and that the questionnaire produced by the health group is ‘manipulative and contains leading questions’.
Cllr Barrett said she is very concerned that due process is not being followed.
‘The Government is very clear about how public consultations should be run and it sets out 11 key principles,’ she explained. ‘Our councillors, local hospital leagues of friends, other local councils and concerned residents have all scrutinised the consultation and it’s very clear that it fails on at least four counts.’
She said the four areas of concern are:
Consultations should not be undertaken if the organisation responsible already has a final view. The councillors said that, given the nature of the presentations made by the CCG, it would appear that closure of community hospitals is already decided. This is the only proposal that has been put forward by the CCG, and staff at the community hospitals have been advised to seek alternative employment. This means that potentially there would be no staff left to run the hospitals and they would close by default.
Consultations should last for a proportionate amount of time. The councillors said the current consultation is scheduled to end in November. Given that the public meetings run until October 12, this gives very little time for communities to produce alternative plans, as requested by the CCG. The CCG itself has said that it has spent two years examining options – it has full-time staff, with all of the data at its fingertips, and so it is unrealistic to expect communities to start from scratch, analyse all of the data and produce an alternative plan in their spare time in just a few weeks.
Consultations should be informative and give enough information to ensure that those consulted can provide informed responses. Councillors said this should include giving validated assessments of the costs and benefits. The current consultation is missing large swathes of key data on costs, needs and assessments. Information is limited to headline figures and often very vague descriptions of how the service will change.
Consultations should be targeted. Councillors said this principle is designed to ensure that those who will be affected by the changes are aware of the consultation. This includes elderly residents and those with disabilities, etc. It is argued that the CCG has done very little to make people aware of the process. On the whole, it is those opposing the plans who have put up posters and made people aware of events.
Cllr Barratt also pointed out that there has been strong criticism of the questionnaire that the health team is encouraging people to fill in.
‘It includes a series of leading questions that appear to be designed to persuade people to agree to the closures of the community hospitals,’ she pointed out.
Buckfastleigh Town Council has drafted a letter of complaint to NHS England seeking to have the consultation suspended until a version considered fit for purpose is produced.
Article originally published by Totnes Times
