Councillors should have a say on NHS, say Camden's Lib Dems
Published: 02 June 2011
by TOM FOOT
ELECTED councillors should join GPs in deciding which NHS services receive funding, according to Camden’s Liberal Democrats.
The party’s leader, Councillor Keith Moffitt, said the system would allow the public to better hold the health service to account.
But doctors’ representatives have dismissed the idea, arguing councillors should have the same input as patients and stick to their roles in the Town Hall.
Cllr Moffitt said: “We very strongly believe that elected councillors should have a strong role in overseeing the local NHS, including commissioning. Having elected councillors, or
other elected people, on commissioning boards would be one way to achieve this, and the government should look at the idea seriously.”
He added: “The bottom line is that the private sector should not be able to cherry pick the most profitable services, and local people must be able to hold the health service to account.”
Councillor John Bryant, Lib Dem chairman of Camden Council’s health scrutiny committee, said he wants “membership of local commissioning bodies to include substantial proportion of elected councillors”.
But Dr Paddy Glackin, medical director of Camden London Medical Committee, said: “Local councillors will have an extensive role in both Overview and Scrutiny Committees and on Health and Wellbeing Boards. We believe that patient representatives must be involved in GP Commissioning and local councillors would be welcome to get involved in so much as they are also patients. It is important that this representation is not tokenistic. Patient representatives must at the heart of GP commissioning.”