Danczuk accuses Rowen of playing fast and loose with the Infirmary

Simon Danczuk

Rochdale’s Labour Parliamentary Candidate Simon Danczuk has warned the Liberal Democrat MP, Paul Rowen, that his support for proposals to hand over control of Rochdale Infirmary to a community interest company could seriously jeopardise the future of health services in Rochdale.

Health bosses from the Pennine Acute Hospitals Trust, which currently runs the hospital, recently met up with the social enterprise company, Buildings4Life, to discuss the possibility of changing Rochdale Infirmary’s model of ownership to a public private partnership.

Paul Rowen has already backed the move and, after attending the launch of Buildings4Life, said the proposals to transfer ownership would make Rochdale free “from some centralised restrictions”.

Simon Danczuk has subsequently accused him of being “naïve” and warned that, under the proposed changes, Rochdale Infirmary could suffer because:

• Services will be lost to patients.
• Once the hospital is taken out of the NHS to become a separate and smaller entity it would not benefit from economies of scale and could be more costly to run.
• As a separate entity it would struggle to attract health professionals.
• Any further structural change would not be welcomed. The move would incur large change costs and cause large scale upheaval for staff.

“Paul Rowen has argued against downgrading our hospital and yet here he is now backing a move that would do just that,” Mr Danczuk argued. “Our MP has constantly flip-flopped on this issue and he does not seem to be aware that the move he’s backing could turn Rochdale Infirmary into a cottage hospital.”

Mr Danczuk is now calling on health bosses to make clear to the public their plans for the future management and ownership of the hospital. “The board of the Trust needs to be transparent in their dealings on this matter,” he said. “The health of the people of Rochdale is far too important to be the subject of secretive discussions in which vital stakeholders are not given the chance to take part in an informed debate.”

Prior to the 15 February meeting, Trevor Purt, Chief Executive of Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Primary Care Trust, said that talks were at a very early stage.

However, a news release issued on 17 December 2007 by John Laing PLC - a leading infrastructure developer and investor, that has joined forces with the Big Life Group to form a separate company, Buildings4Life – indicated that a pilot programme with Heywood, Rochdale and Middleton Primary Care Trust, the Pennine Acute Trust and local people had already been agreed. 

“We cannot hand over the running of such an important community asset to an arms length management company where it might be difficult to establish clear lines of accountability,” added Danczuk.  “Paul Rowen needs to explain in more detail why he has backed this proposal, which to me appears a very high risk strategy.”

In response Paul Rowen said: "Discussions with Buildings4Life are at a very early stage; I am meeting them for the first time in a couple of weeks time for example. When the proposal was first announced I backed the idea of Rochdale folk having a much greater say in the running of our hospital because under Pennine Acute we have seen vital services like maternity, acute medical and A amp; E lost or downgraded. I hope that by giving local people a say in the running of the hospital we can reverse this process. I am obviously not going to agree anything that results in a lower level of provision than we are currently getting."

A spokesman for Pennine Acute Trust said: “There seems to be a degree of confusion about this situation, and we are happy to set the record straight. The Chief Executive and Directors of Finance and Strategic Planning met with Buildings4Life representatives on 15 February to discuss new models of community involvement in public services.

“There have however been no discussions about any proposals to transfer ownership of any part of Rochdale Infirmary, which is wholly owned by Pennine Acute Trust.

“The acute services to be delivered from Rochdale Infirmary are those planned under the Healthy Futures and Making It Better consultation proposals. Nothing has changed in this regard. These have Secretary of State for Health approval and will be implemented in full.

“We are not formally part of the Buildings4Life programme. We have signed no papers nor given any commitment to joining it. However, we have met with representatives of that programme to discuss their work with social enterprise and to learn more about the models of community involvement that are being introduced elsewhere or are being considered.

“When areas of the Infirmary are vacated under the Healthy Futures programme we would want to understand whether other services could be provided from them. This would have no impact on the hospital services planned for Rochdale Infirmary under Healthy Futures.

“There is clear evidence that patients find it convenient to have various social and community services co-located with healthcare. That is a key point of much of the work being done with the new community LIFT centres, and is something which we are exploring in our hospitals too.

“Neither at this meeting or since have any formal proposals been put to us. Specifically, we have had no discussion about changing the model of ownership for the Infirmary.

“At the conclusion of the meeting on 15 February, Buildings4Life said that they will consider the situation and talk to a number of organisations in Rochdale about potential interest. If they feel, at that stage, there they have a proposal which they wish to make then this would come back to our Board for consideration. We give an assurance that any such proposal will be discussed in an open Board meeting.

“If the Trust Board agree to support that work then all organisations involved will make it very clear what this will involve, and we will be seeking active involvement of staff, patients and the public in it.”