During the week that the doors of transparency were thrown open to the NHS in Wales, it was unfortunate that the Health Minister’s expenses log revealed an office shredder as one of her most notable claims.
Edwina Hart had encouraged members of the public to “read the documents and come along” to the first meeting of her new National Advisory Board set up to run the new NHS.
‘Voice not choice’ is the phrase coined by supporters of the new ‘citizen focused’ Welsh health service.
Come to Cardiff Bay and see how we do things differently, her welcoming committee proclaimed this week amid promises to dispatch Board members over the Summer months to consult with travellers, vulnerable children and single parents.
But despite promises of “comprehensive public engagement” and a commitment to hold its meetings in public, it transpired that an earlier ‘informal’ meeting of the Health Minister’s Advisory Board had already taken place behind closed doors, primarily it seems to discuss the content of the ‘public’ meeting.
The arrangement of holding some meetings ‘informally’ is a convenient one and of course, we can still expect matters not deemed suitable for public scrutiny to be dealt with in closed pre-meetings – just like it’s always been.
Close examination of the fine print of the Board’s terms of reference may also lead some to wonder whether we are truly seeing a new way of doing things.
Though the Board will “aim to conduct as much of its business in public as possible, it read, there may “occasionally” be circumstances where it would “not be in the public interest to do so.” The chair will determine these occasions.
The Chair also reserves the right to withhold any documents requested by members and to reject any recommendations they might make.
Any member of the Advisory Board thinking of disagreeing with these principles would also do well to remember that the chair reserves the right to “review and amend the composition of the Board at any time.”
The new Advisory Board is already a far cry from the independent arms length body that many had wanted to run the new NHS in Wales.
Freedom of information has in recent months become the new test of public faith in government and if this Board isn’t seen to be true to that philosophy then the NHS structure built around it will fall.
Ministers must be prepared to open up all their discussions and be prepared to be scrutinized and challenged, or just stop pretending that things are any different in the way governments do their business.
Felicity Waters is an independent freelance journalist and former Western Mail Health Correspondent.
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