A FORUM set up to represent patients and public opinion at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore is under threat, despite only being set up in January this year.
The Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) Forum, staffed by volunteers, held its first public meeting on Tuesday after spending the last few months gathering opinions through surveys and talking to patients. But Health Secretary John Reid recently promised a "bonfire of the quangos" and the commission which oversees the 4,500 PPI forums in the country could be in line for the axe.
Chairman of the forum Donald Williams said he would be very disappointed if this was the case.
He also stressed that the proposed rebuilding of the RNOH, which will go before govenment ministers next month, could not happen soon enough. The new plan would house all the wards under one roof.
The PPI forum's accounts show that it has not incurred any expense so far as its work is done on a voluntary basis. Its members include a GP, an alternative medicine practitioner, a personnel manager, a councillor and a disabled patient.
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