Dakers calls for delay to end of BICS counselling service contract

11.27.07pm BST (GMT +0100) Sun 25th Jun 2006

Lib Dem group Leader on Hounslow Council is calling for a delay to the end of the BICS counselling service contract until SHA investigations are completed

In a letter to local healthcare and community leaders Cllr Andrew Dakers, Leader of Hounslow Liberal Democrats, has today once against spoken out on the threatened closure of Hounslow's highly respected BICS counselling service. For the past twelve years BICS has provided Hounslow's general counselling service to GPs. Their contract with the PCT was lost after a re-tendering exercise shrouded in mystery. Dakers has described Hounslow PCT's limited public explanation of the tendering process and selection criteria as inadequate and urged them to be transparent about how the change was made. He has also said that no further steps should be taken to dismantle the BICS service until independent assessments have been completed into the probibity of the retendering process.

Dakers, commented:

"The PCT has still failed to give a clear explanation as to how the tendering process for counselling services was carried out. Furthermore it seems to have completely failed to consult patients or their doctors adequately.

"I am extremely concerned that steps may be taken in the near future by the PCT to attempt to close down the operations of the highly respected WLMHT Brief Intervention and Counselling Service (BICS). As this matter is still under investigation by the Strategic Health Authority (SHA). such a course of action would seem inappropriate in the extreme. It could only reduce the community's confidence further still and raise even more questions about the process that is being followed.

"Any changes to counselling services should be one of the most sensitively undertaken exercises in local health care. Many people are dependent on these services for their day to day stability."