Now updated with NHS response.
A lay member has been sacked from the committee set up to look at the controversial application to set up a community pharmacy in Uist.
Former social work chief Andrew Walker had spoken out against the secrecy surrounding the process of considering the application by a Glasgow-based pharmacy company to run the service.
The decision of the health board chairman to sack him just for demanding openness is now to be referred to the health minister, Alex Neil.
Andrew Walker – is determined to continue to pres for more openness and transparency
In August, Mr Walker had spoken out against moves by the board to keep secret the lay membership of the Pharmacy Practices Committee which had been tasked to examine the application. The health board insisted on secrecy – supposedly in case members were subject to lobbying or harassment. But Mr Walker said those were “dubious grounds”.
He asked: “Is this any different to the many duties and responsibilities carried by elected councillors who have recently had to consider and decide upon significant cuts to public services, after consulting with the public – eg: community transport, closure of rural schools and inter-island flights? I think not.”
Health board chairman Neil Galbraith has claimed he sought legal advice and Mr Walker has now been told by Mr Galbraith he has decided to give him the boot for speaking out.
Mr Walker responded saying the application itself “is at best ambiguous, at worst misleading, deceitful and dishonest”. He maintains that the applicant’s representative told a meeting “that North Uist area did not constitute his definition of neighbourhood, and this was further placed in writing by the applicant on 29th June, saying: “Rest assured that my application for a pharmacy contract is ONLY for Benbecula/Balavanich (sic). The opening of a Pharmacy will not affect the Lochmaddy medical practice.”
Neil Galbraith – has sacked Andrew Walker
Yet it now does include Lochmaddy – and the health board has done nothing about the entire Uist community being so blatantly hoodwinked. In fact, they seem to have just endorsed the apparent untruths and Mr Galbraith seems determined to continue the process – unless the Scottish Government now moves to block him.
Mr Walker still believes the application is “legally incompetent” and that it should be declared null and void.
He said: “I believe NHS Western Isles are complicit, by default, in allowing this application to proceed. I believe the reason for this rests in the total absence of any representative from the Uist and Barra areas on the NHS Board of Management based in Stornoway, Isle of Lewis.”
He suggested the lack of Uist members on the health board meant they had no idea about local feelings. They should have drafted in Uist councillors to get feedback from islanders.
Mr Walker also said he’d seen nothing in writing stating the need for secrecy about the identity of lay members. Mr Walker said he believed the communities affected by the application had a right to know the identity of lay members appointed.
Dr Gerry Wheeler, of the North Uist Medical Practice, has also cast doubts over the plan and has also circulated a statement in which he says the community are not being told the truth – although he put it stronger.
NHS Western Isles confirmed it had legal advice that any perceived bias by a member of the Pharmacy Practices Committee could create risk of challenge by Judicial Review. That could cause delay and expense. That was why Mr Walker got his jotters.
It also said the minutes of the Pharmacy Practices Committee hearing will be made public later and will include the names of the lay members, the discussions and reasons for the final decision.
