Abolition Of Representative Health Councils

EDM number 479 in 1990-91, proposed by Nigel Griffiths on 14/02/1991.

That this House condemns the decision of the Secretary of State for Scotland to instruct health boards to make health council staff redundant and to replace the existing representative health councils with health board appointees; notes the valuable work carried out in the past by independent local health councils on behalf of patients and users of the health service; deeply regrets that his health boards are to appoint all members of the health councils responsible for pursuing complaints against health boards and for monitoring the boards' activities; views with concern the decision of the Secretary of State to abandon the present policy of ensuring that health council members are drawn from groups representing patients and health service users; deplores his new policy of having his own health board appointees shortlist and appoint the members of his new health councils; deplores the Government's plans to centralise local health councils into larger units, more remote from health service users; and calls upon the Secretary of State to abandon his plans to to establish properly representative health councils to watch over the affairs of health boards.

This motion has been signed by a total of 35 MPs.