BULLY for East Lancashire patients' watchdog Frank Clifford who barks back today at health bosses who defend secrecy over meningitis scares.

He hit out at the cover-up after a second case of the deadly disease occurred at the same Burnley nursery in a month - a clear matter of public interest.

But, says Community Health Council chairman Coun Clifford, the health authority only admits a case exists if the Press makes a specific inquiry.

Even then, it only confirms it involves someone in East Lancashire - of unspecified age or sex - who is being treated at a hospital somewhere in England.

That's ridiculous, he states.

Quite right, it is.

So, too, is health authority chief executive Richard Crail's claim that Coun Clifford's call for greater openness would breach patient confidentiality.

No-one is suggesting that victims should be identified.

All that is being said is that, if there is an outbreak of a disease that is a threat to public health, then people have a right to know where it has occurred so they can be on the alert to protect themselves or their children.

It is over-prescriptive secrecy that Coun Clifford protests about for those reasons.

But we also support him because it is symbolic of the climate of secrecy that exists in so many public bodies - often for no better reason than those in charge having the patronising outlook that they know what is best for the rest of us.

If that includes hushing up meningitis cases or, as Coun Clifford discloses, not saying anything about an outbreak of salmonella in the community until it is all over, then it is evident that their condescension is as misguided as their notion of accountability to their employers, the public, is flawed.

Keep snapping at them, Frank.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.