The Community Health Council (CHC) held its last meeting last week. It was a sad occasion and yet one could reflect on years of help to local people and the effectiveness of a body that had the guts to challenge ‘authority’ with legal action despite threats that the cost would be punitive and borne by members. Bodies to take over from CHCs will be Patients’ Forums attached to Primary Care Trusts (PCTs). To establish Patient Forums for the nearly 600 health trusts, is a mammoth task to be completed rapidly. The Health Secretary assured the Health Committee at a meeting last week that appointments to these bodies were on course to enable them to function from the beginning of December. Patient Forums will monitor performance of local health services and have vital input into service planning with access to County Health Overview and Scrutiny Committees in the case of unresolved differences with PCTs or other Trusts. Other Trusts will have their own forums but it is unclear to me of their importance as PCT Patient Forums will have wide responsibility for public involvement in all health care in their areas.

PALS (Patient Advice and Liaison Services) and ICAS (Independent Complaints Advocacy Service) will take over CHCs’ other roles. PALS exist in every Trust for help and advice to patients, families and carers. ICAS, unlike PALS, is independent from the NHS and exists to help with complaints against the NHS. The contact number is 0845 120 3748 from where you will be put in touch with the Worcester Citizens Advice Bureau which is the organisation responsible for ICAS for Worcestershire
icas@worcestercab.cabnet.org.uk ).

I had an Adjournment Debate on the European Working Time Directive on Monday. During this I was able to warn the Government that taking an accident and emergency department away from a community of our size and spread does not work as it overloads other departments and the Ambulance Service and causes untold hardship to local people. I emphasised our vital need here for an on-the-spot emergency reception centre staffed by doctors as well as experienced nurses. Such emergency reception centres are going to be necessary for other hospitals which will in future risk losing acute services because of the reduction of doctors hours dictated by the European Working Time Directive. It is hard to see how hospitals in close proximity like Gloucester and Cheltenham or Shrewsbury and Telford will survive unchanged. Many of the surviving small hospitals are likely to be unviable.

In Health Questions, I was pleased to obtain the Secretary of State’s endorsement of birth centres in reply to my question on the importance of such centres with these words, "I will make sure that we protect and help to prosper the midwife-led opportunities".