Councillors Scrutinise Healthcare Bid

Published on 14 December 2007

Councillors from Epping Forest District Council were shown a presentation by representatives from the Princess Alexandra Hospital at the Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting held at the Civic Offices on Thursday 13 December 2007.

Mr Robert Powell, Deputy Chief Executive of Princess Alexandra Hospital, gave a presentation on the Hospital’s bid for Foundation Trust status. This was followed by the views of Aiden Thomas, Chairman of the West Essex Primary Care Trust and John Carr of the West Essex Patient and Public Involvement Forum, who both gave their support for the bid with a few reservations (see link below to view the webcast).

The area that encompasses almost all of the admissions to Princess Alexandra Hospital includes Epping Forest, Harlow, Broxbourne, East Herfordshire and Uttlesford with residents of Epping Forest accounting for almost 28% of the admissions. A lively question and answer session followed with members of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and District Councillors airing their concerns to Robert Powell and James Day, The Trust Secretary and Solicitor. Issues raised included accountability, financial freedom, what is a member and who can apply, the structure of the Council of Governors and benefits to residents of the Epping Forest District. The recommendation to support the bid for Foundation Trust status was agreed by the Committee.

The presentation and discussions were webcast and can viewed in its entirety, click here to view the webcast

The public consultation ends on 13 January 2008, comments and details can be found on the Princess Alexandra website, click here to visit the PAH website.

Members then discussed changing the current four week cycle of Area Plans Sub Committee to a three week cycle. This was proposed to improve the performance in the speed of determining planning applications. The performance of the Council in 2006/07 exceeded the Government's targets in all three of the key indicators with the proposal aims being to speed up the process. Members discussed the merits of speeding up the process and providing the Epping Forest residents with a first class services against the cost of the additional meetings. Members agreed that further discussion and debate would take place at the Council meeting in February 2008.

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