Harriett Baldwin, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for West Worcestershire this week received a reply to her letter to Health Minister Ben Bradshaw.
Mrs. Baldwin had written to complain that the consultation was flawed because it only included one option; it put consultation responses into the wrong category; it treated thousands of petition signatures as one response; it displayed confidential personal information on-line and detailed financial information was not made available to those preparing alternative proposals.
According to the Department of Health's reply, challenges to the consultation can only be made through an Overview and Scrutiny Committee to the Secretary of State.
Otherwise the only other alternative would be judicial review, which could involve significant legal expense.
Mrs Baldwin said, "I will now take up the cause with the local councils most affected to see if they are prepared to challenge the consultation process."
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Full text of letter from Department of Health
"Dear Ms Baldwin
Thank you for your letter of 19th October to Alan Johnson (sic) about the consultation on the restructuring of the West Midlands Ambulance Trust (WMAS). Due to the large amount of correspondence Mr Johnson receives, he is unable to respond directly to each individual letter. I have therefore been asked to reply on his behalf.
The Department notes your concerns about the consultation process. However, it is for the WMAS NHS Trust itself, not the Secretary of State, to decide upon its consultation obligations and how it fulfils these responsibilities. If an interested party considers that the decision made following the consultation was in some way unreasonable, then there is a formal process that should be followed.
In the first instance, any questions relating to the reasonableness of the consultation and decisions made arising out of the consultation should be directed to the NHS Trust itself. If no resolution can be reached, any challenges to the consultation or the decision could be made through an Overview and Scrutiny Committee referral to the Secretary of State (if the relevant overview and Scrutiny Committee thought that such a referral was appropriate and necessary), or by means of a judicial review challenge against the Trust, whereupon it would be a matter for the courts to determine.
However, the Department will be seeking assurances from the Chief Executive of WMAS to ensure the correct and proper process has been followed throughout this local consultation on proposed control room configuration."