MP Concerned Over "Bureaucratic Black-Hole"

Wednesday, 17 March 2010

Southport's MP John Pugh warned today that plans to create a new 'Integrated Care Organisation' to provide hospital services in the town amounted to a 'Super Quango, unceremoniously imposed across existing services in a bizarrely haphazard manner'.

After reviewing the report proposing the changes, Dr Pugh has highlighted a number of passages which he says 'appear to set a dangerous precedent for an almost unlimited bureaucratic expansion'.

The report, which was approved by Sefton NHS bosses at a meeting in January, says 'new governance arrangements will be required' in order to solve 'tension with and between organisations' that the new scheme is expected to create. Dr Pugh, who has spoken with several of the organisations involved about their concerns with the scheme, is now warning against 'plans which could see beds replaced with bureaucracy':

“We were told that this scheme would result in 'less bureaucracy and paperwork', and yet the report behind it is calling for more governance, says organisation  structures won't be changed, and predicts tensions between the organisations involved.

"To me, this is a clear blueprint for new quangos and red-tape to be imposed upon  services that are already working well. In fact, in some instances it looks set to divide existing services in two, simply to accommodate them within arbitrary boundaries drawn up by faceless bureaucrats in Whitehall.

"It seems to be less about 'working together', and more to do with 'working for the sake of working'. The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the bureaucracy.”

The MP criticised moves that he said would see Sefton split in two, with the northern half of the borough part of the new ICO incorporating parts of Lancashire:

“Nobody is against the integration of health services. The way Sefton operate at the moment in terms of co-operation between health and social care services is of great benefit to the people who receive a service that's tailored towards their needs.

"This new scheme would split two departments, who are already working together well, into four – all in the name of enhancing co-operation. It's simply bizarre”.

"He was also critical of professed moves to involve patients and other stakeholders in a process he describes as 'byzantine in its complexity':

“Each time a new scheme like this is fired off on a whim from Whitehall, it adds yet another layer to the impenetrable quagmire of 'initiatives', 'partnerships', and 'strategic trajectories' that are choking the NHS in needless red tape. How ordinary working people are expected to make sense of this absurd bureaucratic puddle never seems to be considered'.

Dr Pugh has now written to Sefton NHS with a checklist of concerns he says need to be addressed 'as a matter of priority':

“Proposals such as this should first of all answer to the tenets of basic logic and  common sense. As it stands, the plans effectively meet the needs of Whitehall bureaucrats justifying their own existence, but I'm less convinced that they will deliver improved health services to the people of Southport.

“That's why I've asked the NHS to provide me with assurances that we're not seeing beds being replaced with quangos.”