Pre-election period: NHS guidelines

You may be aware that some local elections are taking place on 5th May both in councils and for Police Crime Commissioner posts.

Whilst this does not affect all of our region, we as a public sector body take on board NHS guidance published last year. The below is taken directly from the guidance:

• the NHS should remain politically impartial at all times – staff should not be asked to engage in activities which are likely to call into question the political impartiality of their organisation, or which could give rise to criticism that public resources are being used for party political purposes
• NHS business should proceed as normal with no disruption to patient services – but as issues relating to the NHS tend to be high profile, and likely to attract far greater scrutiny in the pre-election period than would otherwise be the case, special care will be needed to avoid being caught up in issues of propriety or party political controversy.

The full guidance can be found here: https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/ccg-election-guidance-15.pdf  

Published 15th April, 2016