"The Keep Our St Helier Hospital (KOSHH) campaign group has serious concerns about the statement released by Healthwatch Sutton yesterday (14 July) in relation to the political neutrality of their public meeting scheduled for Thursday 17 July. Given that the event is being administered via the website of Liberal-Democrat MP, Tom Brake, our concerns remain unallayed," said a spokesperson.
"Here are our main concerns with the Healthwatch Sutton statement:
1. Healthwatch Sutton claims it is a “small charity with limited funding and resources” and, as such, accepted an offer of “administrative support from the office of Tom Brake”. This has resulted in all RSVPs for the public meeting and, disturbingly, all questions for the public meeting to be submitted in advance via Tom Brake’s website. This is an obvious compromise to Healthwatch Sutton’s political neutrality.
2. While Healthwatch Sutton claims that it will lead “all decision-making surrounding the meeting including the composition of the panel and the method of question-selection”, the fact remains that all correspondence will pass through Tom Brake’s office rather than simply going directly to Healthwatch. Emails promoting this public meeting have gone out to Tom Brake’s extensive mailing list, which sounds great in theory, except that this is a fine way for a very Liberal-Democrat-sympathetic group to attend a meeting that has a very Liberal-Democrat-heavy panel.
3. Calling for questions in advance is undemocratic and non-transparent. What is the panel afraid of? Opening the floor to uncensored questions is a more open way to answer the many concerns of the public over the future of St Helier Hospital and its services. "