WITH an ever-growing population, the National Health Service has to be modernised and it is inevitable that some of the changes it faces will be painful.

It is, therefore, vital that public consultation and transparency are at the heart of decisions which affect patients.

So what should we make of the revelation that a decision has been taken in private on the future of children’s and maternity services at The Friarage Hospital, in Northallerton?

The debate over the future of those services has been a particularly controversial regional issue and, although the Clinical Commissioning Group insists it has transparency as a core value, it is easy to understand why cynicism remains.

As we reveal in today’s paper, the CCG’s council of members – made up of representatives from every GP practice in Hambleton and Richmondshire – decided on the preferred way forward at a private meeting on February 7.

The public will not, however, be made aware of the favoured option until a video of the private meeting is posted on the CCG’s website on February 20.

A week after that, the decision will be ratified at a public meeting when the governing body will discuss how to implement the decision.

Having already refused to circulate an alternative proposal drawn up by Richmondshire District Council, the CCG has now drawn further questions about its transparency by making a decision in private, sharing it by video two weeks later, and then organising a rubber-stamping exercise.

It strikes us as an odd way to win the confidence of an understandably concerned public.