WATCHDOGS have left it too late to force a re-think over the way a controversial drug abuse contract was handed out.

Community health councillors' request for a judicial review into why the £880,000-a-year drug misuse service was awarded without public consultation has been turned down.

The Burnley NHS Trust lost out to the Accrington-based CommuniCare Trust in the battle to provide the drug misuse contract across East Lancs.

Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale Community Health Council (CHC) wrote to Stephen Dorrell saying East Lancashire Health Authority had no right to combine the Blackburn and Burnley services without meeting its legal obligation to consult the public.

But health minister John Horam has responded that the request for the judicial review was "too late in the day."

He said the CHC had been aware of the proposals for "some considerable time" before they had raised any objections. In a letter to the CHC he also highlighted their "lack of objections in principle."

He adds: "To require a formal consultation exercise would be neither in the interests of the service, nor its clients and likely be disruptive to everyone concerned in a critical transitional period."

The CHC has agreed to monitor the contract to make sure it meets the needs of patients and carers. It does not have the financial clout to take the health authority to court.

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