Major shake-up in local hospital management from 1 April

A major change in the way four local hospitals are run has been announced by the chief officer of health and social care partnership.

Jon Rouse has announced that, from 1 April, Fairfield General Hospital, The Royal Oldham Hospital and Rochdale Infirmary will be managed by the Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust.

Currently the three hospitals are managed by Pennine Acute Hospitals Trust, which is also responsible for North Manchester General Hospital. North Manchester will be managed by Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust from the same date.

This is the first step of a plan to split Pennine Acute Hospitals Trust.

Mr Rouse told a scrutiny committee that these interim measures will affect management of the hospitals, but the formal transaction will not take place until 2021.

He said: “We are all committed to securing a long-term future. This is a really complex acquisition process. We are effectively demerging by splitting into two trusts. Having done due diligence, we know that very significant capital is required.

“They wouldn’t have been able to get assurance to enable this transaction to be complete by the original deadline. However, we don’t want to stay in limbo.”

Mr Rouse hopes that bringing the hospitals together will help with recruitment, which has been a challenge for Pennine Acute Hospitals Trust.

He added: “The benefit of Salford and its brand is that we can bring in nurses and use them for our other sites.”

Mr Rouse made the comments as he welcomed the “once-in-a-generation” investment to rebuild North Manchester General Hospital announced by the Prime Minister last summer.

However, Mr Rouse says that the hospital should have been rebuilt a long time ago.

He said: “As far as we are concerned, that hospital should have been rebuilt in the last 40 to 50 years.

“We are running hospitals in a museum. Hospital design has changed massively over the last 150 years since these hospitals were built. When North Manchester is redesigned, it will be designed with these principles.”

Mr Rouse also warned that this capital investment should not come at the expense of funding for other hospitals in Greater Manchester, and more of Greater Manchester’s hospitals must be redesigned and rebuilt.

Joseph Timan, Local Democracy Reporting Service