St Luke's Hospital scandal makes the BBC Politics Show

The scandal over the Leicestershire County and Rutland Primary Care Trust's mishandling of the redevelopment of St Luke's Hospital in Market Harborough made the East Midlands edition of the BBC Politics Show yesterday lunchtime - as you can see from the video abouve.

Edward Garnier MP and the Liberal Democrat councillor Phil Knowles took part in the report, which confirmed everything that has appeared in the press and my posts on St Luke's. In particular, it confirmed that the Trust paid £1.5m to the appropriately named Modcon UK, which has since been wound up by HM Revenue and Customs.

It further confirmed that the Trust paid that money without making basic checks on the company and without obtaining a bank guarantee (a recurrent theme in Harborough politics).

The very kindest view one can take of all this is that the Trust is guilty of extraordinary incompetence. But the Trust's continued refusal to give any account to the public - it refused to put up anyone to appear on The Politics Show - does not encourage one to be kind.

And, once again, the need for democratic accountability in the NHS is made clear.

Later. I have edited this post now that the video clip has appeared on Youtube.