HAMPSHIRE: SHA given 12-month stay of execution

HAMPSHIRE: SHA given 12-month stay of execution
SHA fluoridation can still go ahead
HEALTH chiefs will have the time they need to put fluoride in Hampshire's tap water supplies before their organisation is axed, the Daily Echo can reveal.
By Jon Reeve
Anti-fluoride campaigners had hoped Government plans to scrap regional health bodies next spring would mean the South Central Strategic Health Authority (SHA) couldn't get the framework in place before it lost its powers.
The SHA had been facing a race against time to put the controversial plan
into practice. But now the body looks to have been given a 12-month reprieve - giving it long enough to implement the fluoride scheme. Earlier this year, the SHA defeated a High Court legal challenge designed to stop fluoridation, and work on the scheme, which had been on hold for virtually two years, was restarted.
The authority said last night it was now confident fluoride could be in the
water within as little as 18 months.And even once the SHAs are axed, it now looks likely their powers over new schemes will be handed to the new national body Public Health England.

The SHA said last night it is working with Southern Water towards starting
delivering fluoridated water to nearly 200,000 residents.

Edited version because of copyright.