Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Board of Directors insists on holding meeting required by law to be in public without journalist present
By John Brace – Editor
John Brace is a governor of Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust but was on leave at the time that the below happened.
On 4th September 2024, I went to the Boardroom at the Postgraduate Education Centre, which is next to Arrowe Park Hospital to observe and report on a meeting in public of the Board of Directors of Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
As you can see from the screenshot below, the Trust website stated this meeting would start at 9 am and I arrived in the Boardroom a few minutes before 9 am.
I was told on arrival by a Trust employee that the start time of the meeting was now not 9 am (as stated on the website above), but 10 am and it was suggested that I go to the restaurant in the basement called the Retreat (which I did and bought myself a bottle of water) and come back at 10 am.
I sat down at a table to drink the bottle of water I’d bought and a Trust employee (a Director on the Board of Directors with the role of Chief People Officer called Debs Smith) sat at my table (without asking) and insisted that I leave. I explained that I was there in my journalist (not governor capacity) and why I was there for the Board of Directors meeting early, as the incorrect start time had been on the website (see above) as I hadn’t known the meeting was starting at 10 am (rather than 9 am) and that the other Trust employee I had spoken to had suggested I come to the Retreat to wait. I also pointed out the unanswered email I’d sent the day before to the Trust’s Press Office (quoted below):-
“Hi,
Just a heads up that I intend to attend (as a journalist – for clarity not in my governor role which I’m on disability leave from currently) a meeting in public of the Board of Directors in the Boardroom (post grad education centre) on Thursday 4th September 2024 between 9 am and 11 am. My understanding is that it is a meeting in public, for clarity I’m not asking for permission to attend, just informing you I will be in case you want to send a press officer.
John Brace
Editor”
I finished my bottle of water and left the Retreat (as she’d requested me to do so) and returned for the start of the Board of Directors meeting at 10 am. I came into the room, sat quietly on a chair at the back and said nothing and just observed.
Immediately, the Chair decided to adjourn the meeting and insist that everyone on the Board leave the room.
I went to leave the room, but Debs Smith insisted I stay behind in the Boardroom. She said that members of the public didn’t attend in person, but were instead given a link to observe the meeting virtually. I pointed out I hadn’t been emailed a link and asked her to write down the link for me to observe virtually (as a compromise), she refused to do so and again insisted I leave (threatening me with calling security if I didn’t).
So I left.
The law states the following at paragraph 18E(1) of Schedule 7 of the National Health Service Act 2006:-
“The constitution must provide for meetings of the board of directors to be open to members of the public.”
Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust’s constitution at Annex 8 (which can be found on page 83), at 4.41 states:-
“4. Meetings of the Board
4.1. Meetings held in Public
4.1.1. Meetings of the Board must be open to the public, unless the Board in its absolute discretion decides otherwise in relation to all or part of such meetings for reasons of commercial confidentiality or on other proper grounds.”
For clarity, the Board of Directors did not make such a decision to not make it open to the public before the meeting was adjourned by its Chair Sir David Henshaw.
The agenda and a supplementary agenda for the meeting (which were published on the Trust’s website before the meeting) can be read by following those links.
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Seems like either everyone has it in for you John, or this another case of Public companies [ the NHS] wasting more tax payers money, holding meeting and adjourning them for no reason, this is the reason the whole of the NHS needs reforming from the ground up, i take it this meeting will take place at another date, and time thus wasting more money, and hoping you won’t be there to report it. good luck John
Thanks for your comment, in reply to your point, the Board of Directors resumed the meeting after I’d left, their next scheduled meeting is on 2nd October 2024. Lord Darzi’s recently published report on the state of the NHS in England goes into detail about a lot of the current problems with the NHS.
Do you have any grounds to address the events that unfolded as unlawful under the legislation you have quoted in the posting above? It seems the Board of Directors might not be aware of the finer details of the legislation – or perhaps the legislation has never been tested.
I guess you are formulating a complaint to the Trust based on the events as described in this post?
Thanks for your comment.
Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust are required to act in a way compatible with section 6(1) of the Human Rights Act 1998 which also includes article 10 (freedom of expression).
In answer to your question, Debs Smith (Chief People Officer) was reminded of the provisions of Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust’s constitution by myself but chose to ignore it.
I might point out that page 211 of the agenda pack for this meeting stated:-
“Meetings of the Board of Directors shall be held in public may be attended by any member of the Trust, the public, or staff”…
If you look at the agenda pack for the meeting in question published on the Trust’s website here, it states “BOARD OF DIRECTORS IN PUBLIC” on page 1 followed by “BOARD OF DIRECTORS IN PUBLIC” on page 2. Page 3 then has Board of Directors in Public followed by Board of Directors in Public Agenda.pdf, the start of the agenda on page 6 has “Board of Directors in public”, the following reports are headed in bold on the first page at the top left “Board of Directors in public”, Action Log, Chief Executive Officer Report, Chief Operating Officer’s Report, Integrated Performance Report, Quarterly Maternity and Neonatal Services Report, Learning from Death Reports (Q4 2023/24), Guardian of Safe Working Report Q1 2024/25, 2023-2024 Annual Submission to NHS England Northwest Appraisal and Revalidation, Annual Review of Terms of Reference, etc.
Therefore it should be obvious (to anyone who read the papers for the meeting)!