Dacorum Hospital Action Group calls for West Herts Hospitals Trust to be more transparent

The group has recently undertaken an analysis of the policy of local NHS trusts in relation to board transparency and openness.

Edie Glatter, chair of DHAG, wrote a letter to the Chair of West Hertfordshire Hospitals Trust, about the fact that they are holding their board meetings in private.

She said: "I want them to be more transparent and accountable with the public.

"They are going to be spending a lot of money on the redevelopment, I think the public has a right to know what's going on in meetings.

"There should be transparency, like other trusts, for example, the Luton and Dunstable has been transparent with their meetings and notes, why can't WHHT?

"Other trusts are holding virtual meetings, why are WHHT holding their meetings in secret?

"I want to stress that I sympathise with all staff at WHHT especially the front line staff who have been under tremendous pressure but other hospitals are in the same boat and the other five hospitals receiving large amounts of public money for new hospitals have managed to be more open.

"The trust is significantly less open than many other trusts in the surrounding areas.

"But perhaps more disturbing is the WHHT’s failure to match the standards of transparency and accountability demonstrated – despite the practical difficulties caused by the pandemic - by the other trusts who were given the go- ahead for new hospital facilities in September 2019."

On the WHHT website it says that the trust holds board meetings every month, and as part of its commitment to openness and accountability; members of the public, staff and volunteers are welcome to attend and ask questions.

Due to the extraordinary circumstances that the country is currently going through, the Board meetings on April 2, May 7 and June 4 were held in private.

Questions were still welcomed from the public and had to be sent to the Trust Secretary and responses were sent back. The papers from the Board meetings are available on the Trust's website.

Nearby, Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust are also not holding physical board meetings in public due to COVID-19. Members of the public can email the trust if they would like to receive papers for any of these meetings.

A spokesperson for the WHHT said: "The Trust has been hugely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and so we needed to prioritise the care of our sickest patients.

"Responding to COVID-19 continues to be our main focus. Watford General Hospital remains closed to visitors.

"We considered moving our meetings to another location but did not want to add travel time for our executive team – which includes senior clinicians – because we need them to be on our main site, leading our response.

"So, we took the decision to make our Board agendas considerably shorter and to use digital technology so that Board members who could not join us in person could still take part.

"We continue to make our papers available on our website, where we also have an invitation to the public to send in questions for the Board to answer.

"We have also published ‘decision logs’ so it is easy to see what decisions we have taken.

"For our June Board meeting we have invited Healthwatch Hertfordshire to observe the meeting and to raise any questions they have during the course of the meeting.

"Our plan is to invite members of the wider public to join our July Board meeting virtually and we are currently exploring ways to do this.

"We are currently beginning work on the next stage of our redevelopment plans and have invited members of the public from all the communities we serve to sign up to be part of a reference group so that we can hear their views as we proposals gather pace.

"There will be other opportunities for local people to learn more about our plans over the coming months.

"Due to COVID-19 and social distancing requirements our engagement activity will involve using digital technology.

"We will continue to make papers related to this available on our website."

The full analysis by Dacorum Hospital Action Group can be found at www.dhag.org.uk.