MP denies Rochdale is depressed

Rochdale MP Paul Rowen has hit out at claims that Rochdale is ‘one of the most depressed areas in the country’ saying the claim is "wide of the mark".  Mr Rowen was speaking after a Sunday Newspaper claimed that people from Rochdale, Heywood and Middleton Rochdale took the seventh highest amount of anti-depressants in the country.

He said, “I am proud to represent the town I was born and bred in and find this story a mystery.  I spend all my time travelling throughout our excellent town and find everybody to be so upbeat at the dozens of events that I attend weekly.  Rochdale has so much going for it including the excellent Hollingworth Lake, the beauty of the wonderful Healey Dell, our fantastic Town Hall and much more.  I had the pleasure of attending the opening of the new spine road at Kingsway Business Park on Friday and that project shows that we have much to be upbeat about.  I don’t buy into these type of stories – which is essentially a national newspaper trying to fill column inches.”

Mr Rowen did warn though that doctors may be oversubscribing anti-depressants and tranquilisers because they are overstretched. He said: “Figures that I received in response to a Parliamentary Question I asked clearly show that we have 61 GPs serving an average of 100,000 people in our area. This is well below the national average.  I am concerned that our GP’s are over prescribing anti-depressants and tranquilisers and using them as the quick and easy solution.  I don’t think that GP’s are spending enough time and trying to diagnose the actual problem.  This is maybe because we have fewer GPs than the national average and ours are overworked.”