76. Evidence submitted by Oxford and Bucks
Area of South Central Ambulance Service PPI Forum (PPI 135)
Future of Patient & Public Involvement and
LINks with particular reference to Ambulance Patients Forums
I am Eileen Young—Chairman of the Oxford
& Bucks Area of South Central Ambulance Service Patient &
Public Involvement Forum.
1. It is outrageous that PPI Forums should
be abolished after only two years and that the Government has
been aided/abetted in this by collusion with the "Panel of
Experts" chaired by Harry Cayton in Spring 2006 which concluded
that Patient Forums had been a failure. So, on 12 July 2006 the
DoH publishes the ridiculous, airy-fairy document—A Stronger
Local Voice—for information & comment only. Not a consultation!
This was not intended to be circulated to PPIFs, CPPIH or indeed,
Local Authority OSCs for Health.
2. LINks? What on earth are they? Obviously
someone at the DoH came up with this acronym and the Department
now hopes someone—will tell them how to design a system
around it. Now the Government has pulled a really fast one. Need
to legislate to get rid of CPPIH & PPIFs? Simple—slip
it into the good old Local Government (& Public Involvement
in Health) Bill 2006-07. First reading before Christmas, 2nd one
next week; well on its way already.
3. Anyway, I attended yet another DHN event
this week on 9 January where Dr Richard Taylor MP gave an excellent
exposition as to why those two "weaselly" clauses in
the Bill—to abolish PPIH & set up the framework for
development of a LINks system (?)—will not be opposed because
the rest of the Bill is uncontroversial.
4. We members of the South Central Ambulance
Service Patients & Public Involvement Forum are having a hard
time trying to work out how on earth we can relate to our Overview
& Scrutiny for Health Committees of the local authorities
in our "patch". Our patch covers the area from Southampton/Portsmouth
up to Milton Keynes and consists of four County Authorities and
nine Unitaries.
Our Forum Support Officer took the initiative
and organised a meeting in Newbury on 5 December 2006, inviting
all 13 Overview and Scrutiny Committees to send representatives.
Chairmen and Officers from nine authorities attended a very useful
meeting but it was clear at the end that the OSC folks did not
understand what they will be taking on when "LINks"
arrive at their door and they certainly have no comprehension
as how the SCAS—PPIF (21 of us at present and 1.5 Forum
Support Officers) can possibly be expected to "LINK"
to so many and over so huge a geographic area?
5. I did challenge Dr Taylor on this aspect
of what is about to happen. All we do know about LINks so far
seems to be that it could consist of "up to 1000 people in
an area, getting together over a local health issue" (Meredith
Vivian, DoH).
6. This whole thing just gets more and more
weird. Please do something to alert MPs and drum up some opposition
to this ludicrous "airy-fairy" notion of LINks and make
the DoH, or whoever, go back to the drawing board and, at least,
draw up an outline of a scheme; including how it will be run,
financed, resourced and by who. We were told, at the DHN seminar
earlier this week, that the pilots being set up at present in
6 areas across England have been given no money, no "brief"
and no resources to begin work.
Eileen Young
Chairman of Oxon & Bucks PPI Forum, South Central
Ambulance Service
11 January 2007
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