COUNCILLOR Sue Galloway is right to express her concerns about the implications for the citizens of York of creating a huge health care trust covering the whole of North Yorkshire.
Not only will it be geographically remote from York, but it will also be faced with the conflicts of competing claims between rural areas of the county and the urban nature of the city.
It also runs counter to the guidelines set out by the Government when seeking to streamline the existing primary care trusts. The consultation paper urged wherever possible that the boundaries to be agreed should be the same for health and social care since their responsibilities were complementary and often overlapping. For York, that should clearly have implied the City of York boundaries.
What a pity, then, that Coun Galloway and the Liberal Democrat group on the city council did not oppose the proposal from the strategic health authority to create this mammoth health organisation. She and her colleagues could have strongly represented York's interests, as did the local Member of Parliament, Hugh Bayley, and the York Older Person's Assembly. It is now too late to cry over spilt milk.
Bob Towner,
Hobgate,
Holgate, York.
Updated: 09:48 Tuesday, May 23, 2006
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