NHS chief says sorry for not meeting Friends

Darren Grayson, chief executive of East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust, had accepted the league’s invitation to be guest speaker at last month’s annual meeting.

But six days before the event he e-mailed to say he would be unable to honour the engagement because of an important meeting.

The league, which gave £488,500-worth of equipment to Bexhill Hospital and the Conquest in the last year alone, had hoped to be given an overview on pending NHS reforms which would help guide its future policy.

There were murmurs of discontent at the April 13 annual meeting when it was announced that Mr Grayson was unable to come or to send a deputy.

The chairman told members: “It is a shame that this afternoon we haven’t a speaker who could enthuse us for another 12 months, giving us the confidence of knowing where we are going.

“I felt really annoyed that they are willing to take our shilling but could not give us the courtesy of sending a speaker. I don’t think it would be out of order for us to write and give them the general feeling of this meeting.

“I feel they have disrespected us.”

On a show of hands, the meeting voted unanimously that the chairman should write and complain at what was seen as a high-handed and dismissive attitude.

In his letter to the chief executive the chairman said: “We as an organisation contributed almost £500,000 last year to support the NHS deliver better treatment and to improve patients’ visits or stays in hospital. It is work the League of Friends has undertaken faithfully since its foundation in 1952.

“The general public has a right to be kept informed. In particular at this time of change in the NHS the League of Friends was seeking your guidance on how best to employ the resources entrusted in us by our supporters…

“…Our members were incensed and disgusted by this total lack of respect for the dedicated work of the volunteers who, year in year out, produce all that is asked of them.

“Governments come and go, along with executives, but we are constant and deserve better treatment and respect from those in authority.

“Not at any time did a proposal come to us suggesting that someone else could stand in for you. We feel we were just brushed aside.

“Please remember, a tap can be turned off just as easily as on, the people of Bexhill deserve better.”

Now Mr Grayson says: “As you will be aware, the Trust received an unannounced visit from the Care Quality Commission on February 16.

“A follow-up meeting with our CQC compliance manager was arranged for the afternoon of April 13 and we did not receive confirmation of the date until the April 6.

“As soon as confirmation was received my office submitted my apologies and re-arranged my diary.

“I was on this occasion unable to send a representative as the meeting with the CQC involved the majority of my executive team. I am sorry if you feel you were brushed aside, however, as I have explained, this meeting had to take priority.

“The work and fund-raising of undertaken by the League of Friends is highly valued by the Trust, and the volunteers play a huge part in the day-to-day running of our hospitals.”