How does travelling further become closer for sick children?

Posted By: Jean Ashworth
Date Posted: 20/01/2008

RO News: Paediatrician speaks out on moves of maternity and children’s services. Dr Peter Powell speaks for the people of Manchester not for the children or mums to be in Rochdale or Fairfield! He states that Oldham and Manchester will be host to our lost services and claims that local families with the sickest babies will have help much closer to hand! How does travelling further become closer?

Our five excellent paediatrician’s in Rochdale have stabilised and saved many a child’s live before being moved to a more specialised unit, which without that immediate and quick intervention most of those little lives would have been lost.

Dr Powell states that there will be an extra eight children’s nurses in the community and they are going to “keep children out of hospital”!

So we in Rochdale are going to lose 24 inpatient children’s beds seven days a week and eight more community nurses are going to cope and keep them at home safe and sound not needing emergency care? 

Every week our paediatricians are phoning round all areas and struggling for beds to accommodate our really poorly babies, and children sometimes for up to eight hours before an intensive care bed can be found. So again it is utter rubbish to say moving our children’s inpatient care to North Manchester really is going to “Make it better”!

What about Fairfield’s poorly babies and children?

It would be nice if Dr Peter Powell had actually sat down and spoke to the paediatricians in Rochdale and Fairfield and listened to their realistic views on these ridiculous proposals then maybe he would have had a different view on how these proposals really are going to work in Rochdale and Fairfield.

I have, over the past 30 years, seen our consultant paediatricians, Dr Buston, Dr Adler and Dr Stack, provide the most excellent care, along with the present Dr R Smith, Dr I Aryiawansa, Dr P Mir, Dr Oluwole, and Dr R Rifkin and save many a child’s life. They  have never lost their expertise; in an emergency situation it is the likes of these silly proposals that are going to lose lives because these beds will never be available, neither will the staff ever be able to cope!

So sorry Dr Peter Powell, Rochdale & Fairfield paediatrics and maternity staff  really do not share your enthusiasm for our future health and wellbeing.