On Monday 28 January I was at a meeting of the county council's Health scrutiny committee where members of the Trust were in attendance to report on the Momentum programme. My initial reaction was one of concern because the Trust had previously committed itself to "engagement" with the county council on the implications of the Momentum programme. Considering that the Trust had done almost everything in the past except engage the people of East Durham, I was curious about their interpretation of the term "engagement".
I immediately questioned the validity of the Trust's presence and I put it to them that their understanding of the term "engagement" was entirely at odds with mine, considering the extremely poor level of consultation carried out in East Durham during the early stages of Momentum. Last year I reported this anomaly to the Health ombudsman and it is currently under investigation (see blog dated Tuesday 8 January 2013 for more details). As if to prove my point the Trust continually referred to the Momentum consultation exercise of 2007-2008, when in fact the first plans to close Hartlepool hospital began to emerge four years earlier!
I asked how members of the health committee, and the people I represent, would benefit from "engagement" and, specifically, how we could influence the future direction of the Momentum proposals. I told them that if we couldn't really change anything I was not prepared to allow the county council to be used to apply a veneer of democratic sanction to their plans under the guise of "engagement".
In return I was assured by senior members of the Trust that they truly were serious about engaging with the county council. However I feel that this commitment may be tested at some point in the future if and when I call on the Trust to suspend their Momentum programme pending the outcome of an inquiry into its clinical safety!
Watch this space.