County Councillor Bones slams Tories for Health Care Cuts Hypocrisy - letter to Oxford Mail

2.53.27pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 20th Jul 2006

If the Tory county council cabinet funded social and health care properly they wouldn't need to be concerned about NHS cost-cutting.

Councillor Couchman said changes are,"simply to save the Oxford Radcliffe Hospital Trust(ORHT) money......the NHS should discuss such huge changes with ourselves...."

Does Cllr Couchman suffer from memory problems? I attended a meeting which he chaired between Oxfordshire MPs,the NHS and the Director of Social and Health Care in June,where these issues were discussed.

Haven't the cabinet heard of the Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee,chaired by one of their own councillors? The NHS have been consulting with us for months. As a member of that committee I have seen Cllrs Couchman and Mitchell attend on occasion. Memory problems again?

What a disgracefully clumsy attempt to hide their own budgetary shortcomings by irresponsibly blaming organisations such as the ORHT of changing delivery of medical services for their own interests. The ORHT is one of the top hospital trusts in Britain. Shame the equivalent can't be said of Cllr Mitchell's administration.

This is a tawdry Tory slur on an organisation that is forced to make budgetary cuts despite not overspending. It does nothing but worry and upset Oxfordshire residents.

If the cabinet can recover from this plague of Harry Potter-esque memory modification, they can give me a call and I'll be happy to take them through what they already know but aren't willing to admit.

County Councillor Gail Bones

Headington and Marston