Lambeth Community Health Council

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.

Lambeth CHC began life in April 1974 as the St. Thomas Health District CHC, later known simply as St. Thomas’ CHC. Its aim was "to provide a new means of representing the local community’s interests in the Health Services to those responsible for managing them" (Minutes of Inaugural Meeting, April 1974). The CHC initially met in hospitals and community spaces before finding a permanent base at 2 Cleaver Street from 1977 onwards. Members were appointed by the borough of Lambeth, voluntary organisations and the South East Thames Regional Health Authority.

In the NHS Reorganisation of 1982 St. Thomas’ Health District (Teaching) became the West Lambeth Health Authority. A new CHC was set up accordingly. The last meeting of St. Thomas’ CHC was held in June 1982 and the inaugural meeting of West Lambeth CHC was held in July 1982. Some former members were retained and some new members joined. The records of the CHC continue seamlessly between the two organisations.

A further change occurred in 1993 following the Regional Health Authority’s decision to re-align CHCs along borough boundaries. Lambeth CHC was set up and received three members allocated from the former Camberwell CHC. The first meeting of Lambeth CHC took place in April 1993. The motto of Lambeth CHC was "your voice in the NHS". As before, the records of the CHC continue seamlessly between the two organisations.

Community Health Councils in England were abolished in 2003 as part of the ‘NHS Plan (2000)’. However, the last records held for Lambeth CHC date from 2000. The last file was labelled with the note "Lambeth CHC 1997 - 2000 (NB: no later records available)" indicating that records for the period 2000 - 2003 are not in this collection and may not have survived.