It is difficult to lament the passing of something of questionable value and efficiency. So, if ministers go ahead and end the experiment of patients’ forums in the coming months, as seems likely, mourning will be misplaced. The forums were not intended to be experimental. They were heralded as “the real engine of the new patient involvement arrangements” of the NHS when introduced two years ago. But so shortlived has been their existence that their credibility scarcely made it out of the showroom.

On paper, patients’ forums could have played a valuable role in providing the public with a platform to offer constructive criticism. As replacements for community health councils, the watchdog system that operated for three decades, they have failed to live up to their billing. There is little to celebrate, though, in their demise. Their problems were largely of design rather than performance, and ministers bear responsibility for wasting time and effort given by well-meaning citizens and money belonging to the wider taxpayer. Unlike their CHC prede- cessors, which were based on health regions, the forums covered individual trusts and were too close to the bodies that they were supposed to monitor. At best their oversight was tokenistic. At worst it was non-existent.

They were further hampered by bizarre arrangements whereby their administration was outsourced to third parties, including charities, some of which have increasingly decided such work to be unsuitable for them. Some forums will be missed, but most struggled to function.

Ministers say they intend to replace forums with a more comprehensive system to give people a better handle on their local hospitals. It is to be hoped that this is not simply rhetoric for two reasons. First, the NHS is too central to many Britons to escape proper local scrutiny. Other public services are well monitored. Schools are overseen by education authorities and their own governors, some elected by parents. Police authorities haul chief constables to account. Recent reforms, such as crime and disorder reduction partnerships, make local forces further accountable. Changes in the pipeline will allow residents to force senior officers into public appearances and explanations. The NHS, if it is to retain the confidence of its patients, must be open to similar levels of local accountability. Ministers must devise a system that encourages the views of ordinary people without it becoming dominated by the well-meaning but professional busybody.

The second reason is one of ministerial self-interest. As we noted this week, an NHS that is shedding jobs and parts of which are mired in red ink is going to continue to attract alarmist headlines. A public that does not understand the Government's health reforms could turn ugly. Ministers should recall Labour’s defeat in Kidderminster at the hands of a local health campaigner. People rightly feel strongly about the NHS. It serves all sides — the health service, the local community and ministers — for the public to be closely involved.