BUCKINGHAMSHIRE’S official NHS watchdog has been criticised for not taking any formal action over controversial service changes in its first year.

The Buckinghamshire Local Involvement Network did not use its power to inspect hospitals unannounced, make recommendations to NHS bosses or demand investigations.

It came during a year in which Wycombe Hospital lost key birthing services, clinics were removed from Amersham Hospital and Marlow Community Hospital was shut for a time.

And The Bucks Free Press can reveal that the county’s other NHS watchdog will call LINk bosses to explain their actions so far.

The LINk is the official watchdog for health and social services and cost taxpayers £118,175 in 2009/10, its first full year of operations. Its chairman said it was playing a vital role.

But John Barlow, a former NHS board member, said: “I just don’t know what they are doing.

“I have read their annual report and see an awful lot of activity but not much action.”

Mr Barlow, a former non-executive director of defunct Wycombe NHS Primary Care Trust, said the body is ‘not being challenging enough’.

He said: “It’s a very easy thing to happen. The more of an insider you get to [managers’] issues the more you sympathise with them, but actually they are supposed to be representing the public.”

Mr Barlow said: “What the public want are representations on the things that matter for them.”

He pointed to packed meetings over the loss of services from Wycombe Hospital as a clear sign of residents’ priorities – but said the LINk had not called such public meetings.

The annual report states the LINk made a request for information but did not use its ‘enter and view’ powers to inspect premises such as hospitals or make reports and/or recommendations to NHS or social care chiefs.

It also made no referrals to Buckinghamshire County Council’s overview and scrutiny committee for public health services, the county’s other watchdog.

This holds public hearings where it can demand bosses appear to answer questions and can, in some cases, demand a halt to changes ahead of further consultation.

Committee chairman Councillor Mike Appleyard said he would ask the LINk to explain its activities in the autumn.

He said: “We need to look at the stuff they have got to support their report.” The council pays the LINk’s running costs.

But LINk chairman Andrew Clark said the report is ‘not a comprehensive account of everything the LINk has done’.

He pointed to 17 major and 23 minor projects including probes into dentistry, stroke care and waiting lists.

Members – all unpaid volunteers – have taken a ‘very close interest’ in community hospitals and sat on an NHS panel examining medical cover, he said.

He said: “We are not a campaigning body. One of the things that disappoints people who come to the LINk is that is not a campaigning body.

“We are a statutory organisation whose job it is to ensure service providers take account of users’ opinions.”

Yesterday Mr Clark said he would take ‘at face value’ for the time being managers’ arguments that Wycombe Birth Centre had to close because of staff shortages.

Its annual accounts state £79,830 went on staffing and £25,219 went overheads such as IT and consultants. Other costs included volunteer expenses and marketing.

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