Dudley councillors criticised for missing health meetings during pandemic
A major shake-up of a council health committee has been called for after it emerged councillors failed to attend its meetings.
The low attendance rate at the Dudley’s Health and Wellbeing board – which helps coordinate work with the NHS, hospitals and GPs – has triggered a call for change.
But the board’s chairman, Councillor Nicolas Barlow, stressed the authority’s Covid response plans haven’t been affected by the lack of numbers.
Speaking at a recent meeting of the authority’s Overview and Scrutiny Management Board, Councillor David Tyler claimed high absenteeism had slowed efforts to improve health.
He said: “If you look at the numbers of people giving apologies and look back through the Health and Wellbeing board’s minutes it’s as if almost as many people giving apologies for not being at the meeting as there is at the meeting.”
He added: “We have already asked that this committee reviews everything to do with the Health and Wellbeing Board and I think it is an issue because the board has the capacity to drive health improvements for all of our residents further and at a much greater pace that it has being doing at the moment.”
