MP's fears over NHS secrecy groups

WARRINGTON North MP Helen Jones has raised her concerns about the secrecy of new NHS groups that will be created if the Health and Social Care Bill becomes law.
During a debate in the House of Commons Ms Jones (pictured right) identified the fact that new Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) can decide when their meetings about important issues are made public or kept behind closed doors.
She said: “I want to see more transparency in public organisations but the drastic changes being made to the NHS by the Tory-led Government will actually allow new NHS groups to be more secretive.”
“CCGs will be able to decide when the public is to be allowed to know or not know what is going on in meetings about the provision of their health care. The Government is actually making the NHS less accountable to patients.”
“My fear is that when tough decisions are needed to be made or contentious issues debated, the CCGs will simply decide that the public shouldn’t be allowed to know what happened at the meetings and hideaway from proper scrutiny.”
“I am fundamentally opposed to the attack that the Tories and the Lib Dems are making on the NHS and the secrecy of CCGs is just one element of the Bill that will harm the NHS.”
Ms Jones raised the issue during the Third Reading of Health and Social Care Bill.