Published: 18/07/2001, Volume II2, No.5814 Page 6

The majority of community health councils have put in bids for the pilot projects which will oversee patient complaint and advocacy services when CHCs are abolished, according to the Department of Health.

CHCs are angry that the DoH, despite having over eight months in which to formulate and publish a bidding process, published a four-page document dated 1 July with a 11 July deadline.

Association of Community Health Councils for England and Wales director Peter Walsh said the deadline for preparing and submitting bids was 'ridiculously short' given that it was vital for experienced staff to make a 'smooth transition' from the CHCs' service to primary care trusts' patients' forums.

In November last year, following a concerted survival campaign by CHCs, the Health and Social Care Act established the legal framework for Independent Complaints and Advocacy Services (ICAS) to replace CHCs.

Campaigners secured an amendment to the act which enabled CHCs to bid to take ICAS status following the abolition of CHCs in spring 2003. But a DoH spokesperson said that the bidding process had been trailed for over six months and that 'the majority of CHCs had submitted bids'.

'It has always been the intention to have a bidding procedure, and Peter Walsh has been a member of the transitional advisory board [overseeing the replacement of CHCs]. We had had to wait until January until the act became law and gave legal status to ICAS, but there have been a series of roadshows in May and June when people with an interest in bidding all came along.'

Transitional advisory board chair Paul Streets said that the transitional advisory board and the DoH were arranging a national meeting and a series of 'reference group' events for NHS and voluntary organisations and representative bodies.

'It is vital that everyone is consulted on how patients' forums and ICAS will work and to ensure that we do not leave patients in a vacuum during the transition.

'Things have been held up due to delays in the bill becoming law. But interviews are taking place on Friday for the post of chair of the Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health which will oversee the new bodies.'

Peter Walsh is to take over as chief executive of charity Action for Victims of Medical Accidents from January 2003 when Arnold Simanowitz retires after 20 years in the post.