HEALTH bosses are refusing to give information to the public about a local hospital.

A Freedom of Information request was sent to NHS Kirklees – the body responsible for organising healthcare in the district – regarding services at Holme Valley Memorial Hospital.

However they claimed it needed to be directed to Locala, the new community care provider.

And despite providing the majority of services at the hospital, Locala has claimed it is “a social enterprise” and does need to respond to Freedom of Information requests.

This means that the public is currently unable to find out any information about services at the Holmfirth hospital including:

How many complaints have been made about services at Holme Valley memorial Hospital?

The number of MRSA cases?

The number of records lost?

The number of attacks verbal or physical made on staff?

The number of staff suspended?

Under Freedom of Information legislation, all organisations that provide primary health or dental care have a duty to provide information to the public.

However Locala has said that as it is no longer part of the NHS, and is only commissioned by the NHS Kirklees Primary Care Trust, this ruling does not apply to them.

Yet they have also claimed that they are in no way a “private health provider”.

Locala Company secretary Chris Reeve said: “We do not have to provide that information at the moment.

“We have spoken to the PCT and the Information Commissioner’s Office and we don’t fall within that criteria of Freedom of Information legislation.

“When we were formerly part of the NHS we responded to FOI requests, which took up a lot of time.

“We have taken this opportunity, in our new form, to not have to.

“That is not to say we will always take that view of things. This is the current situation in concerning what has happened.

“The law has not kept up with the changes.”

Mr Reeve determined a social enterprise as “having a different approach to how they use their money”.

He continued: “We are in it to provide better services. If we make a profit, it will be re-invested to further improve services.

“If we were a private company, it would all be about the share holders.

“We are not-for-profit and if we do something good around here, we get the benefit as opposed to it going straight back in to the Department of Health.”