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Bill abolishing CHCs faces stormy ride

The Government is facing cross-party opposition to its renewed attempt to abolish community health councils in England.

The NHS Reform Bill, which outlines wide-ranging changes to existing systems for patient representation and involvement, faces a rocky ride as it goes into report stage and heads for the House of Lords during January.

Community health councils in Wales and local health councils in Scotland have already won reprieves within the Welsh and Scottish NHS reorganisations. But although the House of Lords rejected earlier plans to abolish English CHCs in 2001, the Government revived the proposals when it published its reform bill in November.

The bill would abolish not only CHCs, first set up in 1974, but also their national umbrella organisation, the Association of Community Health Councils in England and Wales (ACHCEW). In their place, the Government wants to set up a complex system of watchdogs and complaints services. It rejected the idea of turning CHCs into ‘patients’ councils’, which would co-ordinate patients’ forums locally, although this has won widespread support.

Labour MP David Hinchliffe, who chairs the backbench health select committee and drew up the idea of patients’ councils, told healthmatters he was ‘baffled’ over how the Government was proposing to replace CHCs. He accepted the idea of patients’ forums for every NHS and primary care trust but was concerned there would be no co-ordination of their work at local level.

‘The motivation for patients’ councils is that they would offer the ability to ensure a patient with concerns about their whole process of treatment would be dealt with by one body,’ he said.

The Government’s plans are also being opposed by Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs. ‘There is cross-party concern,’ said Mr Hinchliffe.

However, consumer bodies are divided over the plans. ACHCEW and individual CHCs are fighting for their survival. ACHCEW argues that the planned new national patients’ body, the Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health, would lack independence. Although it accepts the idea of forums it also believes these will be compromised because they will be based in trusts, which will provide their administrative support.

Peter Walsh, director of ACHCEW, said: ‘Our worry is that the Government’s alternative to CHCs are lacking in independence and too fragmented. The proposed system is byzantine and likely to prove deeply confusing to patients.’

But other consumer groups, including the Consumers’ Association and the Long-Term Medical Conditions Alliance, have broadly welcomed the plans while stressing that the system must be properly funded.