News

NHS watchdogs survive to bark another day

Community health councils gained a last minute stay of execution as the government dropped plans for their abolition in order to get its health and social care bill through parliament before the election.

The government had run into a storm of protest over proposals to scrap CHCs and replace them with a complex arrangement involving patient forums and area councils.

Many had been surprised at the proposals, originally set out in last summer’s NHS Plan, which seemed to have come out of the blue. Previous Labour Party policy has been strongly supportive of CHCs (see Patients’ friends pushed aside by Labour’s PALS, issue 43).

Liam Fox, the shadow health secretary, called the decision a ‘humiliating climbdown’.

While patient groups celebrated the development, saying they would have more time to oppose the abolition of CHCs, the government gave clear hints that the respite was only temporary. New proposals to replace CHCs are expected before the end of the year.