HEALTH watchdogs stand accused of lacking bite and failing the public.

The Bromley's Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) Forum, which is supposed to be the voice of the patient, is behaving "like a secret society" it has been claimed.

The forum has had two public meetings in 18 months the first in June last year and the latest in May.

Just two people turned up and spoke for just 10 minutes in total.

The pair who attended the May 21 meeting were Sue Sulis and Jean Stout, of Bromley Community Care Protection Group, who had specifically asked to be kept informed.

Forums of this kind, made up of volunteers, were set up by the Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health (CPPIH) and the Department of Health, to replace the community health councils which were disbanded in December 2003.

All Primary Care Trusts, which deal with GPs and non-hospital health services, have a forum which the Government says should, "ensure patients and public voices are supported, encouraged and enforced".

But most Bromley patients cannot access this service as the forum appears to have no contact phone number and even the CPPIH and the forum's support organisation, the Council of Ethnic Minority Voluntary Sector Organisations (CEMVO), could not provide one.

The forum's website shows no news.

There are also no completed publications or annual reports and no work programmes are pending.

Mrs Sulis said: "They're meant to be the voice of the public but nobody can get hold of them.

"It's like a secret society."

A CPPIH spokesman said: "There does seem a strong need for them to promote some of the things they've started to do."

In August, CEMVO will lose the contract to support the forum and, from August next year, CPPIH will be disbanded.

News Shopper was unable to track down a single forum member to comment.