NHS Partners Network response to Telegraph article

 

The NHS Partners Network have responded to the article linking them to Reform, and the Daily Telegraph. The statement is written in full below along with the quote, which I used from the document written by the director of the NHS Partners Network. I will be contacting them back in due course in which I will be expecting honest answers.

To view the article see here.
To view the unedited document see here.

The quote used:

"And the whole sequence of Telegraph articles and editorials on the importance of the Government not going soft on public service reform, including some strong pieces on health, is something I have been orchestrating and working with Reform to bring about.’ - David Worskett – Director of NHS Partners Network – Communication document written on 20^th May 2011

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The statement

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3 August 2012

Statement for Social Investigations from the NHS Partners Network

Your most recent blog suggests, completely wrongly, the existence of an orchestrated plan involving the NHS Partners Network, Reform, and the Daily Telegraph, to promote a particular and entirely legitimate viewpoint about the best way to deliver the future security of the NHS at the time of the debate about the Government's health reforms.

Of course there was discussion and coordination between a variety of representative organisations who held similar views of the reforms. This is an acceptable, and expected, approach and one which was also taken by many others including those with very different views to our own.

But the quote you take from the internal NHS Partners Network document which was "handed" to you does not say there was, and should not be taken in any way to imply, "orchestration" with the Daily Telegraph or indeed any other media. Like everyone else advancing legitimate points of view in the debate, there was a desire to persuade the media of the validity of particular arguments, but totally to respect editorial independence which, in the case of the Daily Telegraph, we always assumed to be absolute, as indeed it was.

We know that you do not support independent sector involvement in healthcare. You are entitled to express your view just as we are entitled to express ours. We welcome open debate of these matters. But, in the interests of accuracy and fairness, we would urge you to amend your blog so that it properly represents the words that were actually written and does not misrepresent the position of others.