A reporter in Northampton refused to leave a public meeting held before a hospital inspection by the Care Quality Commission.
Nicholas Bieber of the Herald and Post protested after CQC head of hospital inspections Siobhan Jordan asked the press to leave the meeting on 15 January so the public would not be inhibited in their contributions.
Bieber said: “I asked the people in the hall for a show of hands if they wanted the press to go. No-one put their hand up and we stayed.”
Jordan was appointed as one of eight CQC heads of hospital inspections last October by Chief Inspector of Hospitals Mike Richards as part of a move to “expose poor or mediocre care in hospitals, as well as highlight good and excellent services”.
Herald and Post Editor Steve Scoles praised his colleague's initiative, adding that he possibly needed “some guidance on the difference between reporting a meeting and chairing it”.
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