Scrapping a crusading health watchdog organisation will lead to the NHS ‘marking its own homework’, a Devon MP has warned.

Healthwatch, which champions patient views on health and social care, has enjoyed some remarkable successes in the county, including sparking an investigation which led to a domiciliary care organisation losing its contract.

Now the government plans to abolish Healthwatch England and its network of 153 local Healthwatch organisations such as the one in Devon. It says the move will streamline the oversight of healthcare and centralise the voice of patients.

But critics say it will take away a vital safeguard for patients.

Torbay’s liberal Democrat MP Steve Darling raised the issue during a House of Commons debate on the government’s Health Bill.

He said: “The binning of Healthwatch is disturbing.

“I pay tribute to Kevin Dixon, who heads up the organisation in Torbay and Devon. Only a few years ago, it identified a failure by domiciliary care workers who were supporting the most vulnerable people in their own homes.

“That resulted in an investigation which took away the contract from that provider, and another provider ended up better supporting those people. How can we expect that to happen if we effectively give the duty to providers to mark their own homework?”

And, said the bay’s MP, while the government talks about investing in the NHS, which is Torbay’s biggest employer, the bay is looking at 300 voluntary redundancies in the sector.

“Rather than the investment that the government talks about, the reality in Torbay is job cuts, many of which are likely to be to clinicians.”