Health and Social Care Bill

Memorandum submitted by Wendy Savage MBBCh FRCOG MSc (Public Health) Hon DSc (HS 68)

NCB Clause 5 and schedule A1(2) and(3).

We think that all members of the NHS Commissioning Board should be appointed after open advertisement. The Job description should describe their duties and the competencies required. They should be appointed by an independent panel or by the Health Select Committee of the House of Commons.

We do not accept that the Secretary of State has already appointed the first Chair of this committee before the Bill has been debated fully in Parliament and think this shows gross contempt for the parliamentary process.

Commissioning Consortia Schedule 2 3(2) replace may by must before include provision for 9. The accountable officer must be someone with relevant experience-this is too vague

15(b) Dispose of property-Mr Lansley told me personally that the NHS would not dispose of any assets.

223L(1) we do not think that consortia need to be paid bonuses for doing their job well.

Somewhere there is a line saying that two people can start a consortium-this should be removed as it is ludicrous to think that 2 GPs could run a consortium.

Under public involvement it says that consortia may consult by pr0viding information, consulting or other ways which included being on committees. It is not sufficient to just provide information or include in tone of the meaningless consultations which people are bombarded with. They must have representation on the Consortium Board and relevant committees to feed into decision making.

March 2011