Annex A > Chapter 25 - Concerns 1990 > Concerns > Concerns expressed by South Western Regional Health Authority (SWRHA)
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Concerns expressed by South Western Regional Health Authority (SWRHA)
55 In November 1990 Miss Catherine Hawkins, Regional General Manager, SWRHA, received feedback from her District General Managers about concerns [68] which they had with the Bristol Service.
56 Miss Hawkins told the Inquiry that she had a meeting with colleagues from Exeter towards the end of 1990:
`What would have happened was that the AGM [Assistant General Manager] for those areas would have been coming back to talk with my officers about what should go on the agenda for discussion, so there would have been informal contacts about "When I was discussing this, I picked up ...". So that would have been happening round about October time.' [69]
57 Miss Hawkins said that the concerns expressed were:
`... the contracting was not satisfactory, services they did not feel very happy with and that they were considering moving contracts at the first available opportunity. ... the first contracts would have been arranged by Region, which is why we would have been reviewing at this stage whether they were satisfactory or not, because districts had not set up a contracting mechanism. They were doing that during 1991, ready to take over in 1992.' [70]
58 Miss Hawkins agreed that the dissatisfaction was with the process of contracting and the difficulty of getting a price and agreement from the business managers. [71]
59 As regards her raising those concerns with Dr Roylance, she said:
`They would have been a part of his review as a provider unit. Because they would have been still District Health Authority controlled in 1990, they would have still had a formal review with us.' [72]
`... I cannot possibly believe that I have had that information and not conveyed it to him at a review.' [73]
61 Miss Hawkins summed up the position as she saw it in 1990 and 1991, in the following exchange:
`Q. And why did you have reservations?
`A. Because I do not think, if you get grumbles coming and then fading and then coming again, and then fading, coming again, it is like a rumbling appendix, something is wrong; something is not quite right. You may not be able to put your finger on it or discover it, but it needs monitoring and watching.
`Q. So you had this unease and you conveyed the unease to the DHSS, [74] did you?
`A. I would have conveyed that to the Trust team from the Department, who were assessing at that time whether these acute or community units should go forward for Trust status, and I would not have thought it was something to stop them going forward to Trust status, but it would have been something to register with them because they were going to be monitoring them.
`Q. So you let them know so they could keep an eye on it?
`A. Yes, because Trusts were not finalised or agreed until the end of March 1991, but they needed to be aware that maybe there was something that needed to be kept an eye on - not the least that if other districts decided to move their cases from there, then part of that unit would not be viable. That had big financial implications.' [75]
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Footnotes
[74] Department of Health