Now health secretary is accused of hiding from the public
HEALTH Secretary Jeane Freeman has been branded ‘cowardly’ after it emerged the public have been barred from questioning her during NHS meetings. New Scottish Government guidance shows the minister will no longer take part in the ‘public session’ element of NHS board reviews.
Instead, Miss Freeman will visit an NHS facility or meet only health service staff.
The move sparked accusations that the health secretary is ‘hiding from the public’ amid a growing crisis surrounding NHS finances and waiting times.
Since 2004, the health secretary has personally chaired each health board’s annual review and held the sessions in public.
The SNP continued this practice and has been open to scrutiny by members of the public across the country.
However, guidance published in September overhauled the format and allowed ministers to avoid the public session. Labour health spokseman Monica Lennon said: ‘This is a bad look for Jeane Freeman who appears to be hiding from the public.
‘Stripping members of the public of the opportunity to ask the Cabinet Secretary questions is a step backwards.
‘The annual review of NHS boards should be transparent. Closing the doors on the public and meeting the health board in private is not the action of a confident health secretary. It’s cowardly.
‘Long waiting times for surgery, creaking mental health services, delayed discharges, underfunded social care and GP shortages are affecting people right across Scotland.
‘We need a health secretary who is willing to listen to the public about the challenges facing the NHS.’
Until now, NHS board reviews had two stages on the same day – a public session at which attendees could ask questions of the Government and the board and a private meeting.
However, new guidance states: ‘Ministers will not be holding a public session/Q&A as part of this season of reviews.’
The guidance adds the ‘expectation’ is NHS boards will meet in public separately, which does ‘not need to take place on the same day as the board’s ministerial review’.
The session will be replaced with a visit to an NHS facility, where the minister will have a meeting with staff.
NHS Scotland boards have recently been blighted by financial and governance problems.
And last month, it emerged the number of patients forced to wait longer than the target time for treatment had more than doubled in two years.
The legally binding 12-week target has been breached almost 54,000 times this year.
Cancer Research UK found it can take more than eight months for some bowel cancer patients to start treatment after symptoms were first noticed.
Miss Freeman recently said ‘brokerage’ loans worth around £150million given to financially stricken NHS boards would not have to be repaid.
An Audit Scotland report also warned that the NHS north of the Border is ‘not in a financially sustainable position’.
Tory health spokesman Miles Briggs said: ‘It is only right and proper in our parliamentary democracy that ministers and NHS boards undergo public scrutiny. Removing one of the precious few opportunities the public has to hold the SNP health secretary to account is an affront to that.
‘Nicola Sturgeon has proven she won’t accept cross-party appeals to fix waiting times and struggling General Practice. That’s why many people feel this is the only way they can make the SNP listen.
‘Sturgeon is presiding over a secret Scotland under the SNP and it is getting worse.’
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘The Scottish Government is committed to being open and transparent and provides the public with an opportunity to put questions to ministers through regular travelling Cabinet events.
‘There is no change to the core purpose of annual reviews, which is to hold NHS boards to account.
‘We expect boards to hold public Q&A sessions as part of this season of reviews.’
‘This is a bad look for Jeane Freeman’