A QUANGO set up to ensure that health boards engage effectively with patients and the public on decisions such as hospital closures and service cuts has been branded a “toothless hamster”.

The Scottish Health Council came under fire from MSPs who questioned its independence and its engagement with local communities since it was established in 2005 to be a "patient voice" within Healthcare Improvement Scotland.

The Scottish Parliament's Health and Sport Committee heard that the council's Independent Scrutiny Panels - which consider proposals for major changes to local health services - can only be formed at the behest of the Scottish Government.

Only three ISPs have been set up in the lifetime of the SHC, with none taking place since 2009.

Labour MSP Neil Findlay, who chairs the committee, said: "If a government does not want scrutiny, it is unlikely that it would form a scrutiny panel - does that logic follow?"

Robbie Pearson, chief executive of Healthcare Improvement Scotland said it was "up to Government at the moment to call these", but stressed that the choice of members to sit on such a panel would be "absolutely independent of the Scottish Government".

Mr Findlay added that he did not believe the SHC was delivering value for money for taxpayers.

He said: "The Scottish Health Council has a budget of £2.3 million and it's looking for extra funding from the Scottish Government. But over the last two years it has engaged with, according to your own accounts, 1,180 patients.

"You've 14 offices across Scotland and you have managed to contact just over 1000 people in two years with a budget of £2.3m? I'm failing to see what we get for our money, and I think you're a toothless hamster."

However, a spokeswoman for the Scottish Health Council disputed the 1,180 figure, adding that the SHC "don’t recognise that figure and know that it’s in no way a correct figure". 

She said that the actual level of engagement was "easily thousands every year".

She added: "We’re going to identify a more correct figure to feed back to the committee."

Campaigners have previously complained that the SHC did not oppose moves such as the axing of overnight beds at Glasgow's Centre for Integrative Care or the proposed closure of a children's ward at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley.

Richard Norris, director of the SHC, said its role was to "support meaningful engagement with patients and the public" by health boards, not to "campaign on behalf of local groups".

He added: "The Scottish Health Council is not there to make representations when it comes to major service change; it is there to provide a quality assurance role and to offer a view to ministers as to whether that is major service change or not.

"Ultimately, major service change in terms of the health service is a matter for ministers to decide upon."