Camden News: Takeover came ‘out of the blue’

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Camden News - By RICHARD OSLEY
Published: 10 April 2008

Cllr David Abrahams

Takeover came ‘out of the blue’

LIBERAL Democrat councillor David Abrahams admitted at Tuesday’s meeting that he was “in the frame” over the way the UnitedHealth takeover was put to the test in public.
As chairman of the Town Hall’s health scrutiny committee, he missed the chance to bring the issue before his cross-party panel of backbenchers last year – a move which might have seen the case referred to health secretary Alan Johnson earlier.
It was only a week after the contract had been signed that the committee finally called in PCT board members to explain themselves.
But Cllr Abrahams defended his position, insisting that the Primary Care Trust had not flagged up the potential controversy last spring.
He said: “As far as the public are concerned, this has come out of the blue. If it was made clear, we would be having this debate in spring last year. The public were not asked over whether or not they approved of a new type of private sector provider.
“It was not explained that there was a new type of provider.”
The PCT insists consultation papers revealed all of the options on the front page of the document.

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