They’re listed at:

http://www.cambridgeshire.nhs.uk/About-us/board-meetings.htm

Dear Sharon Fox,

I have just read the minutes of the PCT board meeting held in Cambridge on the 26th of August at which I asked a public question.

These minutes state:

Richard Taylor, Resident of Cambridge said he welcomed the comments
from the Board about local GPs managing out of hour service and he was
concerned that any future service did not include doctors from overseas.

I did not make any such statement. To suggest that I did is defamatory as it suggests that I am xenophobic. I would like the minute to be corrected at today’s meeting. Specifically I am asking for “doctors from overseas” to be replaced with “doctors commuting from overseas”.

I wrote my own account of the meeting based on my notes, this article is available at http://www.rtaylor.co.uk/1887 and gives my view of what I said:

I welcomed elements of the draft specification which referred to a requirement for a service: “embedded within the local community” and said I supported a point which had been brought up by a number of board members - it would be desirable to have local GPs from the area providing the out of hours service. I asked what could be done to ensure those aims were met, and if it was possible to insist that the service was not provided by doctors who were commuting from other countries, hundreds of miles away. I asked what constraints employment law, and European law, was putting on the PCT’s ability to obtain the service its members, on behalf of the people of Cambridgeshire, clearly desire.

The minuting of the entire item contains many other inaccuracies and omissions, for example I asked if while advisory committee (a sub-committee of the board) would be meeting in public and have its papers and agenda made public, I expressed a concern that this key item of business had been taken out of the public domain.

The minutes state my concern was that the Advisory Committee did not include any members of the public whereas in fact I made no comment on the committee’s membership.

Regards,
…

The board’s Chair and Secretary are very highly paid out of public money; this lack of transparency and public accountability is unacceptable.

When I attended the last board meeting I asked a public question about openness and transparency and was told: “the PCT aimed to be as open as it could be and that all PCT Board papers were available on the PCT’s web-site”.

While looking to see if the role was advertised on the trust’s website (I don’t think it is) I was met with a survey stating the website is to be revamped and asking how it could be improved. This too was not discussed at the board meeting.

I made a range of suggestions including:

• Doing the basics right eg. getting the board papers up, in full, on time (The draft out of hours GP contract has still not been published on the website).
• Giving a breakdown of how the PCT spends its money.
• Introducing a culture and technology change enabling all members of staff to post information to the website.
• Providing details of Board member’s pay and expenses.
• Including a Freedom of Information disclosure log.
• Explaning the relationship with the East of England Ambulance Trust and other complimentary bodies better

I suggested the organisation ought publish as much information it holds on the web as possible, making the information as accessible as possible. I also suggested the website ought aim to reduce costs - thorough less staff being required to administer the organisation if it conducted more of what it did via its website. I suggested the new website ought aim to significantly increase the transparency with which the organisation runs.

I also stated the website should link to, and not try to replicate, services which it is not best placed to be providing eg. health advice. I was worried by the suggestions in the survey that the PCT might be considering trying to take its website into all sorts of inappropriate areas rather than focus on its core priorities.

The document has still not been published.