HEALTH bosses say they could review meeting rules after the Oxford Mail called for more transparency.

It came during a meeting of Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust's board of directors yesterday, in Unipart House, Cowley.

The board has been required to hold meetings in public since 2012 but the Mail raised concerns after a reporter was stopped from leaving the room with copies of documents provided to the public.

Members of staff said the trust's policy was to provide copies of reports during the meeting for reading but people were not allowed to have copies on the day or take photographs of the documents,

They insisted the reports could not be published until a week later because they might be 'subject to change'.

Most local authorities publish reports due to be considered at meetings a week in advance and Oxford Health's practice was described as 'ludicrous' by one health campaigner.

However, responding to a question about whether the policy could be changed yesterday, board chairman Martin Howell told the Oxford Mail: "You have raised a question about our policy and I think we need to think about that and take it away."

Sara Ryan, who has campaigned for many years to make NHS trusts more transparent, urged Mr Howell and other board members to scrap the current 'bad policy'.

Dr Ryan's son Connor Sparrowhawk died while in care in Slade House, Headington, in 2013, and efforts by her and other activists led Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust to admit its failings and apologise.

She said: "I have been really encouraged by my conversations with Oxford Health about how they plan to take services on in the county, but this policy for meetings is terrible and I do not understand it.

"They need to be totally transparent if they want to instil confidence in services and make the public feel reassured.

"This is a ludicrous practice that could be easily dealt with by just making clear these documents are draft versions."