A NEW health watchdog said he would meet with hospital chiefs to discuss yesterday’s damning Keogh Report which criticised the East Lancashire Hospitals Trust, but admitted he had ‘scant resources’ to properly investigate concerns.
Sir Bill Taylor, chairman of Blackburn with Darwen Healthwatch, which was created under the government’s NHS reforms, said the body had an annual budget of just £150,000 and there were no full-time staff.
He said it had been ‘designed to fail’ and added: “The government says the voice of the citizen, who owns our NHS, is crucial....then funds it at less than a pound per person, per annum. “We will do our very best, with scant resources, to listen to and speak for the health and social care citizens of Blackburn with Darwen.”
A Department of Health spokesman said Healthwatch groups were ‘central to our plans to put people at the heart of health and care services’, and councils had been given a shared funding pot of £43.5m.
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