New hospital scheme fails to attract interest

The Government's flagship foundation hospitals scheme has been met by widespread public apathy, a leading health expert claims today. Plans to involve local people in the running of the hospitals have failed, says Professor Rudolf Klein of the London School of Economics.

Ministers had envisaged local residents and staff becoming members of the new hospitals, and giving them a direct say in their management and allowing them to elect members of the board.

But Professor Klein has found trusts are struggling to overcome apathy.

He cites the case of Bradford Teaching Hospital's-NHS Trust, which set a target of getting 10 per cent of the local population as members.

But when ballot papers were sent out there were just 1,143 members and only half of them returned the papers.

"So 541 local people chose the 17 governors," Professor Klein writes in the British Medical Journal. He found there was also apathy among staff.

In the Bradford Trust just 263 out of the total 3,600 staff voted to elect the four governors.

However, he said Moorfields Eye Hospital in London had bucked the trend by engaging local participation. At the hospital there had been 50 applicants for three places on the board of governors.

The regulator of the new trusts, William Moyes, said there was no plan to set a minimum level of participation.

But he acknowledged there would be different levels of membership in different parts of the country.

Professor Klein's findings could be an embarrassment for the Government, which had to overcome fierce opposition from its own backbenches to establish the controversial foundation hospitals.