Harborough Lib Dem councillors table motion of no confidence in local NHS Trust

Liberal Democrat members of Harborough District Council have tabled a motion of no confidence in NHS Leicestershire County and Rutland Primary Care Trust (PCT) over its mishandling of the redevelopment of St Luke's Hospital in Market Harborough to the authority's next full meeting.

The motion, to be debated at the next full meeting of the council, reads:

On The Matter of the Harborough Hospital

The anger and dismay at the inability of the PCT to provide/complete Harborough's long awaited new/refurbished hospital and in particular the modular minor procedure/endoscopy unit is cause for deep concern. The PCT has a record of broken promises and missed deadlines on this matter, and in our opinion has badly let down the people of Harborough.

As the Elected body representing the People of Harborough this Council registers its lack of confidence in the PCT, its Executive and Board in this matter.

If the Council is mindful to support this Notice of Motion a letter outlining the decision of this Council should be sent to the Chairman of the PCT with copies to our Local MP and the Health Minister.

Phil Knowles quoted in the United Arab Emirates' leading newspaper

Market Harborough Lib Dem councillor Phil Knowles has made it all the way to the Persian Gulf. He has been quoted by The National, which turns out to be the leading English-language newspaper in the UAE and claims to be "the leading English-language voice in the Middle East".

He is quoted in the course of a long article on the sorry affair of St Luke's Hospital, Market Harborough.

But why are they taking an interest in Harborough out in the Gulf?

Because, as The National helpfully explains:

A small construction firm in the Northern Emirates has become embroiled in a legal row in Britain over its failure to complete a hospital facility.

Modcon UK, a subsidiary of the Ras al Khaimah-based Modcon FZ, was hired to build a £2.3 million (Dh14m) day case unit at a hospital in Leicestershire ...

At the end of May, the trust gave Modcon UK 14 days to resume work. On June 7 it formally terminated the contract. It now plans to tender for another contractor to take over the project and hopes to have the new unit open by January.

A contract between the trust and Modcon UK was signed in January 2010, with the unit scheduled to be fully functional by August that year.

However, delivery of the 10 prefabricated units was delayed until January 2011, owing to last-minute changes to the design.

When the units arrived, they were found to have been damaged in transit and a dispute over liability ensued. The units were not finally moved from the port to the site until March.

Then in April, Leawood Builders, the local contractor hired to install and fit out the units, walked off site complaining it had not been paid by Modcon UK ...

At the end of May, the trust gave Modcon UK 14 days to resume work. On June 7 it formally terminated the contract. It now plans to tender for another contractor to take over the project and hopes to have the new unit open by January.

Phil Knowles makes his appearance at the end of the article:

The new unit is part of a £9.5m expansion to hospitals in Market Harborough. Philip Knowles, a local councillor, said there had been a campaign to improve the hospitals for 15 to 20 years.

"This is just the latest in a catalogue of disasters," he said. "This is of deep concern to everyone in Harborough. We've a real need to get this matter resolved, and resolved quickly."

You can sense people nodding in agreement all over the Persian Gulf and the south of Leicestershire.

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.

Health: Opposing Andrew Lansley is not enough

Like David Boyle I am left a little underwhelmed by the Liberal Democrats' success in bringing about changes to the Health and Social Care Bill:

So in one bound, the coalition has leapt triumphantly into embracing a wholly different series of NHS reforms. Instead of GPs driving forward the commissioning process, there will be appointees representing hospital doctors, nurses and others.

The brave new compromise looks a great deal more like the old PCTs, which are still twitching away prior to being dead and buried.

It is not so much that I was an enthusiast for Andrew Lansley's plans. It's more that I believe a party that has been out of powers for 90 years ought to arrive in government some ambition beyond maintaining the status quo.

David has one intriguing idea for what a Liberal Democrat health policy should look like. My own is that it should receive an infusion of localism and democracy along the lines advocated by the 2002 Liberal Democrat document Quality, Innovation, Choice - otherwise knows as the Huhne Report.

This was one of the best things the party has ever produced, but it seems to have disappeared altogether. There used to be a copy on Chris Huhne's website, but that has gone now. I discussed it briefly in a post from 2005.

It is interesting that two local health issues I have written about frequently both have their roots in a lack of local scrutiny. They are the St Lukes Hospital debacle in Market Harborough and the row over Ayelestone Meadows in Leicester. In the latter case NHS Leicester decided to put £2 million into a scheme that would probably have decreased exercise levels in the city.

That is why we need more democracy and local accountability in the health service. It is the natural Liberal solution and it is the one we should be campaigning for.

Market Harborough hospital scandal deepens

Regular readers will know all about the problems with the new unit at St Luke's Hospital, Market Harborough.

Yesterday there was a meeting between local councillors and senior officers from Leicestershire County and Rutland Primary Care Trust to discuss what has gone wrong.

According to the Leicester Mercury report:

Trust chief executive Catherine Griffiths admitted the contract had been signed without a bank guarantee in place and without financial diligence checks being carried out.

Finance director Sue Bishop admitted the bank bond put in place after the mistake had been noticed ran out on March 31 and that the trust would have to foot the bill to complete the building. She would not say how much it would cost.

The councillors were not impressed. Liberal Democrat Phil Knowles said: "I am astonished at the catalogue of mistakes." And Conservative Kevin Feltham said: "It is worse than we thought. There is serial failure here."

From what I hear, there are also serious questions to be answered about why the contract was ever placed with these contractors in the first place.

St Luke's, Market Harborough: NHS terminates construction contract

BBC News reports:

An NHS trust in Leicestershire has said a contract to build part of a new hospital has been terminated.

NHS Leicestershire County and Rutland had been using construction firm Modcon UK Ltd for the Day Case Unit at St Luke's Hospital in Market Harborough.

Work had faced a number of delays and health bosses issued an ultimatum last month.

The trust said it was now taking legal advice over the possibility of recouping costs from Modcon.

Local Lib Dem councillor Phil Knowles tells this blog:

"The platitudes and I'm sorry's in the trust press release will have been sincerely made but they count for nothing in the midst of yet more problems and broken promises.

This scheme it seems now won't happen till early 2012, what assurances can be given of that new deadline being met? If the costs of third party contractors to make this facility usable are over and above the allocated funds for this section of the build, will the cost impact on the overall £9.5 million for the total scheme?

There are so many more questions. Someone at the very top of the Trust needs to accept responsibility and to get hold of this whole situation as it rapidly descends into a circus and bring the scheme to provide Harborough with its new hospital facility to a speedy and satisfactory conclusion."

NHS to sue contractors over delays on St Luke's Hospital site, Market Harborough

Work has ceased on the new day case unit at the St Luke's Hospital site in Market Harborough and NHS Leicestershire County and Rutland is suing the contactors over the delays with the project.

This adds to the sense of mystery that has surrounded the construction of the new unit. Why, in particular, did it have to be shipped all the way from the United Arab Emirates?

Liberal Democrat councillor Phil Knowles was live on the BBC East Midlands new programme this evening talking about this latest development.

He has also been speaking to the Harborough Mail:

"This is deeply concerning. This whole project has lumbered and lurched from one problem to another. This will lead to a considerable delays."

New unit arrives at St Luke's Hospital, Market Harborough

The regional news this evening showed welcome footage of the units for the new day care unit arriving on site at St Luke's in Market Harborough.

This report from a few days ago, recorded when those units were still sitting at Tilbury Docks, shows my old friend Phil Knowles and reveals that the local primary care trust has been no more forthcoming with the Harborough Mail than it was with the Leicester Mercury.

Mystery at St Luke's Hospital

Ten days ago the Leicester Mercury reported a setback with the provision of new hospital facilities for Market Harborough:

Health bosses in Market Harborough have been given the bad news their long-awaited new day care unit for the development of the St Luke's Hospital site has been damaged on its journey from the United Arab Emirates.

The problems were discovered when the purpose-built sections arrived at the docks in the UK.

However, health chiefs insist the damage is merely "cosmetic" and are planning to check out the problem first hand by visiting the port in the next few weeks.

This report was accompanied by a photograph of two local Liberal Democrat councillors looking suitably sombre.

But why was the unit coming from so far away in the first place? The Mercury has since done its best to find out, but the mystery just deepens.

Anyway, my photograph shows the last remnants of Market Harborough's workhouse, which used to occupy the St Luke's site. I believe they have been demolished since I took this photograph.