Demise of Healthwatch England will do NHS patients a disservice | Letters

Sharon Grant says the agency, which advocates for patients, will go the same way as previous community engagement bodies, to the detriment of health service usersLabour’s dismal record on providing an independent voice for patients in health and social care continues with “offstage” news of the demise of Healthwatch England. Twenty years ago, as the chair of Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health, I was suddenly summoned by the then Labour minister, Rosie Winterton, to be told that the commission was to be abolished. It had only just been set up 2003 in the wake of anger about its abolition of the successful Community Health Councils in that year.The disillusionment of thousands of patients and service users who gave their time and effort to the new system was palpable, so much so that few felt able to participate in the subsequent ill-fated LINks community engagement system, which never got off the ground. Continue reading...

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Demise of Healthwatch England will do NHS patients a disservice | Letters

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