Written evidence to be reported to the House
Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill
4:30 pm
Sally Brearley: It would be interesting and illuminating to know how many of the responses to “A Stronger Local Voice” said that they supported the establishment of LINKs. I know that a lot of people responded to that document, and that situation reminds me of the discussion that we had about who had said they wanted CHCs to be abolished. It was very difficult to locate a significant number of people who had said that in the discussion leading up to the publication of the NHS plan. We have the Government’s stated intentions which, as we have said, we feel are laudable, but I am struck by the similarity to a quotation from Bertolt Brecht, which I am sure many of you are familiar with, that the people have “lost the confidence of the government” and the Government have decided “to dissolve the people and elect another”.
We are very awkward customers, us patients forums people, and us CHC members were very awkward as well. But hey, that is the nature of democracy. You might not like what we say, but we are going to go on saying it.