22.03.12
Legal campaign costs NHS Gloucestershire £137,000
NHS Gloucestershire’s legal campaign to change health services has cost almost £137,000, after a local resident took the organisation to the High Court in London.
The plans were to transfer some health services to a social enterprise, ‘Gloucestershire Care Services’, a community interest company which was due to begin managing services in October 2011.
The services which would have been affected include community hospitals, therapy services, district nurses and 3,000 staff.
A Stroud resident, Michael Lloyd, argued that the NHS had acted unlawfully in planning to hand management of county hospitals and some services to a new body.
NHS Gloucestershire has agreed to settle the judicial review outside of court. A spokesperson for NHS Gloucestershire said it was important to state that the NHS did not bring the legal challenge and it was “very disappointing” that legal costs were incurred.
The trust is now considering what to do next.
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