Campaigners who highlighted serious bed blocking problems in spite of a multi-million-pound cash injection found themselves ejected from the behind-closed-doors meeting that their warnings had prompted.
Some of the most senior people in Cornish healthcare were called to give evidence at a special inquiry day staged at Cornwall Council.
However, Joe McKenna and Graham Webster, chairman and vice-chairman of the group, Health Initiative Cornwall, were told it was a private affair and were unceremoniously slung out.
Mr McKenna said there was no justification for the gathering to be held in secret unless there was something to hide. "Why was this a closed meeting?" he asked. "Why was it not open to the public? I have to wonder what they did not want the public to hear."
Mr Webster, who has just been elected as a governor of the Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust, said public money was being spent by public organisations to cope with an issue affecting the public.
"There is every reason in the world for this meeting to be held in public," he said.