Consultation document already dead in the water

I attended - as an observer - a meeting of the Joint Committee of PCTs held on 3rd March where it was stated that 2,606 responses had been made to the A Picture of Health questionnaire.

I estimate that, bearing in mind that

1. the consultation period is already two thirds of its way through, and
2. most responses are received early on in a process

the total number of responses at the end of the review will not exceed more than about 4,000.

We are talking about the future health needs of more than a million people. 760,000 documents have been sent out which means a response of around 0.5%. A "response" includes not only a completed questionnaire but also:

1. a partially completed questionnaire,
2. just a letter, or even
3. just an answerphone message!

As such, despite Gill Galliano, Chief Executive of Lewisham PCT stating that response rates are "so far very positive" the fact of the matter is that no academic institution would accept such a minuscule response rate as a valid sample from which to draw any conclusions whatsoever.

As such, this unnecessary, expensive and bureaucratic process is already dead in the water.