South Gloucestershire | Archive | 2005 | November | 5
From the archive, first published Saturday 5th Nov 2005.
THE BATTLE to save facilities at Frenchay Hospital gained momentum this week as a new campaign to fight the downgrading was stepped up a gear.
Northavon MP Steve Webb and South Gloucestershire Council have joined forces in a renewed bid to save the facilities after the Department of Health deemed as acceptable the decision to downgrade if from an acute to a community hospital.
Mr Webb has arranged a meeting with senior staff of the Parliamentary Ombudsman to discuss a complaint of maladministration against the Department of Health and South Gloucestershire has voted to allocate funds to fight the decision in the courts.
"We will not be fobbed off by the Department of Health, which is clearly not listening to the views of local people," Mr Webb said this week.
"Since their refusal to allow someone independent to investigate I have been inundated with letters and emails from South Gloucestershire residents urging me to keep up the fight, and I intend to do just that.
"The Ombudsman's role is to see if people have suffered injustice as a result of maladministration and it is clear to me that local people will suffer a great injustice if this decision is allowed to go ahead unchallenged," he stressed.
Meanwhile, Lib Dems on South Gloucestershire called upon the council to take expert legal advice over a possible judicial review of the Frenchay decision.
And at Wednesday's meeting of the council's health overview and scrutiny committee, Cllr Dave Hockey tabled an all-party agreement for a request to the council's cabinet to authorise the funding to explore a legal challenge.
The council agreed the motion and will now press ahead with legal action to contest the decision by the Bristol Health Services Plan board to downgrade Frenchay Hospital and the decision of the Secretary of State not to refer the matter to the Independent Reconfiguration Panel before reaching a decision.
Cllr Dave Hockey said: "South Gloucestershire councillors were elected to be the voice of our community, and there are few issues where that voice is needed more than over the future of Frenchay.
"We owe it to local residents to see if this seriously-flawed decision can now be challenged in the courts."
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