Hospital boss explains why board meetings are now being held in private

Meetings at the Dudley NHS Trust and other Black Country health trusts have been moved behind closed doors amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Diane Wake, chief executive at the trust which runs Russells Hall Hospital, says this is in line with national policy. But she says the trust is committed to maintaining transparency with patients.

In comparison, council meetings and court cases are still publicly accessible over the internet with webcam technology.

Responding to a question from the Express & Star, Ms Wake said: "It is really important to our NHS trust that we are able to communicate with and answer questions from our local community.

"Their support during this crisis has been hugely important in keeping our staff motivated and positive. We are grateful to the people of Dudley for their terrific support over the last few weeks.

"In these unprecedented times and in light of Government guidelines in relation to Covid-19 and in particular social distancing, we are following national guidelines and best practice for boards and meetings generally in the NHS.

"The Trust, along with the NHS nationally, remains on level four incident, which is the highest level of emergency preparedness planning, and is under national command.

"Constraints on allowing public access to our meetings are to do with physical restrictions and the availability of technology.

"However we want to be transparent and ensure we keep the public informed through a variety of means including our board meetings and also through our publicly-elected Council of Governors.

"We have published the papers for this month’s board meeting on our website and have invited questions from the public and indeed the press which we will address in the meeting.

"We will then publish the outcomes from our discussions and the answers to the questions raised so that everyone can see them.

"We are also providing full weekly briefings to our local MP s who have been elected by the public and who are in daily contact with local people, as another means of making sure we stay in touch with local concerns.

"We continue to monitor best practice on how boards should be operating to see whether other hospitals are finding solutions that we could use, and this includes reviewing the suitability of technology options. At the moment our approach is considered to be good practice across the Black Country.

"We have nothing to hide, indeed The Dudley group has risen to the challenge of Covid-19 and we are tremendously proud of our staff and their commitment to the highest levels of care."

Agenda papers for the board meetings can still be viewed online. Last month, the Express & Star revealed the agenda papers for a board meeting had not been published at all. A public summary was later published.