Mike Penning criticises NHS Trust over misleading email slogan.

Mike Penning has criticised the West Herts Hospitals NHS Trust for using the slogan “West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust will soon be a Foundation Trust and you can be part of it this exciting change” on its emails as misleading and presumptuous. The Trust is in the early stages of application and is unlikely to be assessed by Monitor – the independent regulator that assesses Trusts for foundation status – until Spring 2010.

Mike Penning said:
"This matter was brought to my attention by a constituent who, rightly, felt that it implied that the granting of foundation status was a foregone conclusion and therefore made a mockery of the rigorous and independent assessment procedure carried out by Monitor.

“It is totally misleading to say that the Trust ‘will soon be a Foundation Trust’ long before the assessment has even been carried out.”

In response to Mike’s complaint, Monitor has asked the Trust to remove or amend the misleading slogan.