Page 73 - BHTA 100 years

until April 2003 after a meeting with the DoH and Customs and Excise and was a great example of how the Association could help members and how its in uence was growing.
There were changes in titles at the end of the year, with Ray Hodgkinson becoming Director General and Sarah Lepak taking on the new role of Assistant Director.
Ray commented on a new Audit Commission report that had con rmed no progress had been made in assistive technologies provision since the last report two years before. He said: “This report con rms our fear that equipment services are the Cinderella services of the NHS. Services remain under managed and under resourced even though investment could bring real bene ts.”
A new draft Code of Practice was launched in July 2003 at an event where Government Minister, Melanie Johnson MP was the keynote speaker. The new code was driven partly by the problem of mis-selling in the industry and the feeling that, unless the industry regulated itself, it could be taken out of its hands by government legislation. It was the aim of the Association to gain Of ce of Fair Trading endorsement for the Code of Practice, which was described as being ‘arguably
the most in uential initiative we will ever do’.
At the AGM, new Chairman, Graham Collyer of Shiloh plc, focussed his message on the aims for the next three years, which included improved services to members and becoming the ‘Corgi’ for the industry through self-regulation.
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Memories from...
“Graham Collyer
In the early nineties when the
association changed its name from BSTA to BHTA, the association had big ideas but insuf cient funds
to deliver them. Through the nineties and noughties the association became stronger, more nancially stable and much better managed. It leads the way in terms of political lobbying and in developing an industry code of” practice.