Burstow demands inquiry into years of waste under Better Healthcare bosses

1.07.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 21st Mar 2007

Paul Burstow, MP for Sutton and Cheam, has demanded a public inquiry into the amount of time and money wasted on the Better Healthcare Closer to Home programme during a decade where local healthcare was left in "limbo".

Mr Burstow raised the issue in a debate he called on the future of the Better Healthcare programme which was set up to provide a new healthcare model for Sutton and Merton. His debate comes just 5 days after a panel reported back on its review of the original proposals.

The review panel condemned the original proposals as financially unviable and recommended the construction of four - rather than five - Local Care Hospitals and a downgraded General Hospital, providing a lower level of A&E service than first proposed.

Mr Burstow seized the opportunity to record his concerns over the findings in the review report, including uncertainty over the financial sustainability of the proposals and the implications for Sutton Hospital. He called for a meeting with the Health Ministers to discuss the proposals and demanded government intervention to push through the next stage of the plans.

Speaking of a decade during which the health service in Sutton had been in "limbo", Mr Burstow called for an inquiry into "just how much has been spent and how much time has been wasted on this enterprise to date." He spoke of millions of pounds wasted on consultants, public meetings and stakeholder events for proposals which have now been judged unsustainable.

Speaking after his debate, Mr Burstow MP said:

"Better Healthcare Closer to Home has become a byword for unworkable plans, fruitless consultation and unnecessary delay."

"It is high time that the failings of those responsible - NHS bosses who are accountable to no-one - were investigated and exposed."

"10 years and millions of pounds have been wasted in pursuit of plans which have now been dismissed as unworkable, preventing the investment which our health service desperately needs."

"With months more planning and consultation still to come, Ministers must take steps to push this programme forward and to ensure that this much-needed investment begins as soon as possible."