Bedford Borough Conservative Councillor John Mingay is demanding answers from the NHS after being told that no information exists on how £2.2m of taxpayers’ money was spent during a review of regional hospitals.
The now defunct Healthier Together review sought to restructure services at 5 hospitals, including Bedford Hospital, in the South East Midlands area. The review was carried out by the 4 Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) which were responsible for organising local healthcare services but which have since been abolished.
The Bedfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (BCCG), the successor to the local PCT, has told Cllr Mingay that it has no information on how its predecessor spent the money. He then submitted a Freedom of Information request to the Department of Health but was told it does not hold any records either despite having responsibility for historic information from PCTs.
Cllr Mingay, who is Chair of the current Bedfordshire Health Services Review Scrutiny Committee said:
‘It seems incredible that £2.2m of taxpayers’ money has been sucked into a black hole within the NHS with no records on how it was spent. The records of the former Primary Care Trusts are supposed to be archived with the Department of Health but that was shown not to be the case when I received the response to my Freedom of Information request.
‘Despite the significant investment it is not clear what the Healthier Together review actually achieved. Following the abolition of the Bedfordshire PCT I doubt those in charge of the review will ever be held to account for their results or lack thereof.
‘We now have a new review of health services in Bedfordshire costing £3.2m, which is even more than Healthier Together despite covering a much smaller area. It is essential that the new NHS structure reverses this worrying culture whereby accountability and transparency have been treated as an afterthought.’