SIR – The treatment of Brendan Young by our NHS trust board – highlighted in the Worcester News (May 25) – brings into question the actions of the trust and its officials on various issues.
Mr Young, as the Worcester News rightly said, occupies a role specifically designed to hold the board to account.
The board knows this and presumably accepts this. But their actions on the first major occasion of him doing so are extremely worrying considering recent pronouncements by various members about accountability, transparency and putting the patients first.
Some may say, perhaps, that this is the trust board using its power to suppress an ordinary member of the public who is holding to account paid public officials.
How does that sit, therefore, with the trust’s continued quiet pursuit of foundation trust status, which gives increased independance and control to the board?
If they behave like this now, how will they behave if their actions are challenged as a foundation trust?
And is this particular board able to justify the ‘trust’ of local people if it is granted?
The other recent article by the Worcester News (May 24) on the large number of vacancies on parish councils, and the apparent lack of interest of the people of Worcestershire, could perhaps be linked to the treatment of people such as Mr Young, where ordinary people who have a sense of civic pride and duty are treated in this way the first time they open their mouths on a subject that means a lot to them.
RICHARD FARRELL-ADAMS
Worcester
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