TORIES SPLIT ON "HEALTH WATCH" MANIFESTO PLEDGE

The majority Conservative group on Kent County Council is split down the middle over their own party's manifesto pledge to set up a Health Watch organisation to duplicate the work of the existing health inspection bodies and the Local Involvement Network (LINk) to be set up in April 2008.

At KCC's all-party Cabinet Scrutiny Committee meeting (held on 24 October), Conservative councillors on the Committee voted with Labour against the idea of a Health Watch run by the County Council to "register" concerns and complaints about the NHS. They expressed their support for greater efforts to be made to set up a LINk for Kent by the deadline of 1 April 2008 required by legislation.

Mike Eddy, Labour Shadow Leader of Kent County Council, said: "Thankfully some Conservative councillors have realised that the Government's proposal of a LINk will allow every sector to be involved in making sure that patients' views and concerns are properly recorded and acted on. The LINk, when it is set up, will be truly independent and it will also cover social as well as health care. Getting the complaints system right for patients and relatives has got to be a top priority in the light of the report into the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells hospitals C. Difficile outbreaks. The last thing we need is an organisation with no power sticking its nose into sensitive medical matters."

At the Scrutiny meeting, Conservative councillors also attacked the Conservative administration for offering a £5 million loan to the NHS without any understanding of the needs of the NHS or the ability of the NHS to accept such an offer.

Mike Eddy said: "One senior Conservative on the Committee described the loan offer as "a political gesture, a knee-jerk reaction". When even their own members say the offer was politically inspired, it just shows that the Conservatives aren't interested in the people of Kent. The present Conservative administration of Kent County Council is spinning out of control and damaging Kent in the process."