{"id":611306,"date":"2026-05-30T01:43:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T01:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/611306\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T01:43:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T01:43:08","slug":"abolishing-patient-watchdog-leaves-nhs-marking-own-homework-councils-warn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/611306\/","title":{"rendered":"Abolishing patient watchdog leaves NHS ‘marking own homework’, councils warn"},"content":{"rendered":"

The LGA says it’s concerned by the lack of a plan for an alternative to Healthwatch, which currently challenges the NHS and providers of care services in the community, when patients or the public highlight problems.<\/p>\n

They warn that disbanding Healthwatch would be a “significant step back” in accountability. <\/p>\n

“Without an independent, locally rooted voice to challenge and represent communities, there is a risk of duplication and gaps in accountability,” the LGA said.<\/p>\n

It is calling on the government to “work with local government” and develop a “clear and workable model” which fulfills Healthwatch’s role while maintaining independence.<\/p>\n

Healthwatch is set to be scrapped as part of broader measures – which include the abolition of NHS England<\/a> – to centralise the running of health and social care services under the Department for Health and Social Care.<\/p>\n

The government says this will reduce bureaucracy and allow more resources to be delivered to frontline healthcare services.<\/p>\n

The plans are being introduced in the NHS Modernisation Bill which is going through parliament and having its second reading on Monday 1 June.<\/p>\n

Under these proposals, Healthwatch’s responsibilities will be transferred to integrated care boards (ICBs) and local authorities, meaning they would have to respond to feedback about their own services, rather than being challenged by an independent body.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The LGA says it’s concerned by the lack of a plan for an alternative to Healthwatch, which currently…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-611306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}