IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB0074 LMA/4748
Held at: London Metropolitan Archives
Title: HAMMERSMITH AND FULHAM COMMUNITY HEALTH COUNCIL
Date(s): 1975-2002
Level of description: Collection
Extent: 0.45 linear metres
Name of creator(s): Hammersmith and Fulham Community Health Council
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Community Health Councils were established in England and Wales in 1974 "to represent the interests in the health service of the public in its district" (National Health Service Reorganisation Act, 1973). Often referred to as 'the patient’s voice in the NHS', each Community Health Council (CHC) served the public and patients in its local area by representing their interests to National Health Service (NHS) authorities and by monitoring the provision of health services to their communities.
CHCs were independent statutory bodies with certain legal powers. CHCs were entitled to receive information about local health services, to be consulted about changes to health service provision, and to carry out monitoring visits to NHS facilities. They also had the power to refer decisions about proposed closures of NHS facilities to the Secretary of State for Health. For this reason, CHCs were sometimes known as the ‘watchdogs’ of the NHS. The co-ordinated monitoring of waiting times in Accident and Emergency departments led to ‘Casualty Watch’ which gained national press coverage. Locally, many CHCs represented patients’ views by campaigning for improved quality of care and better access to NHS services, and by responding to local issues such as proposed hospital closures.
Each CHC had around 20 voluntary members from the local area. Half were appointed the local authority, a third were elected from voluntary bodies and the remainder were appointed by the Secretary of State for Health. Members met every month to six weeks and meetings were usually open to the general public. Guest speakers or guest attendees were often invited, particularly when a specific topic or issue was under discussion.
All CHCs employed a small number of paid office staff and some had shop-front offices, often on the high street, where members of the public could go for advice and information about local NHS services. CHCs published leaflets and guidance on a wide variety of topics from ‘how to find a GP’ to ‘how to make a complaint’.
Within the guiding principles and statutory duties of the legislation, CHCs developed organically in response to the needs of the communities they served and for this reason considerable variation can be found in the records of different CHCs.
Hammersmith and Fulham Community Health Council (CHC) began in 1974 as South Hammersmith Community Health Council. Members were appointed from the London Borough of Hammersmith and the London Borough of Hounslow as well as from voluntary organisations, the local authority and the regional health authority. The Council had a shop front office at 42 Fulham Palace Road.
South Hammersmith Community Health Council ceased to exist when Hammersmith and Fulham District Health Authority was created in the NHS Restructuring of 1982. A new CHC was formed to cover the area of Hammersmith and Fulham, named Hammersmith and Fulham CHC.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Records of Hammersmith and Fulham Community Health Council (CHC) and predecessors (1975-2002). Includes Minutes (1977-2002), Policies (1998-2001), Annual Reports and Project Reports (1995-2002), Visit Reports (1975-2002), Consultation Responses (1977-2002) and Press Releases (1977-2002).
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
Arranged in six series as follows:
LMA/4748/01: Minutes
LMA/4748/02: Policies
LMA/4748/03: Annual and project reports
LMA/4748/04: Visit reports
LMA/4748/05: Consultation responses
LMA/4748/06: Press releases
Conditions governing access:
These records are available for public inspection, although records containing personal information are subject to access restrictions under the EU General Data Protection Regulations, 2018.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copyright rests with the depositor.
Finding aids:
Please see online catalogues at: https://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Transferred from Hammersmith and Fulham Archives and Local Studies in 2015.
ALLIED MATERIALS
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Date(s) of descriptions: Added July 2018.