Hospital Trust ‘not prepared’ for winter

Rochdale Infirmary

The Pennine Acute Hospital Trust has no additional funding for the winter pressure season – placing the vulnerable and elderly at risk across all four sites which the Trust runs, including the Rochdale Infirmary.

This lack of funding is in stark contrast to the national situation where other hospital trusts are providing extra funds to cope with the winter season.

There is a huge worry across the borough about how the trust is going to cope.

In the winter of 2009/10 there were 1,182 more emergency admissions in Rochdale than expected.

Councillor Jean Ashworth, Chair of the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee, said: “The Pennine Acute Trust is failing. They are not prepared. They are failing in their duty to provide safety.

“They have already said that the winter pressure figures are rising every year and there is nothing that we can do about that but be there and provide the services.

“At my meeting of Health Overview and Scrutiny last Tuesday I raised a deep concern that extra funding won’t be provided I asked if this would change and I was told that it wouldn’t.

“They are putting people at risk.”

A spokesman for The Pennine Acute Trust said: “Seasonal changes have an impact on NHS activity and hospitals, like those run by the Trust, plan for this.

"At the moment we are dealing with the impact of the cold weather and the related health problems this can bring. We are putting into action plans that have been developed to ensure that patient safety is maintained during the winter months. This is something that happens every time there is a surge in demand for NHS services, but particularly over the winter months when there can be an increase in people becoming sick.

"Our staff are working extremely hard to maintain high quality services and patient safety.”

He added: “We will only have the ability and finances to open a certain number of additional beds if needed as part of our contingency plans for winter. It’s going to be a tough winter and therefore it is essential that the public adhere to our messages surrounding 'Choose Well' which encourages people to use the right local health service to get the right treatment, particularly for those who have minor injuries or illness.

"A well stocked medicine cabinet can deal with most minor ailments and injuries. If you need further advice contact NHS Direct, go to your local pharmacist, walk-in centre, minor injuries unit or GP.”

The lack of funding for the winter pressure season is the ‘icing on the cake’ for Rochdale.

Rochdale Council is set to call for a vote of no confidence in the Pennine Acute Hospital Trust.

The motion will be raised at tomorrow (Wednesday 15 December 2010) night’s meeting of the full council.

Over 1,000 residents across the borough have supported the move with a petition and the motion is expected to be agreed by all four political parties in Rochdale.

The move comes after the Trust announced they had no extra funding for winter pressures. The Council is also concerned about the Trust’s financial position and the “Healthy Futures” reconfiguration being brought forward by 12 months.

The motion calls on all four party leaders to write to the Chair of the Pennine Acute Hospitals Trust expressing the Council’s no confidence in the Trust and asks for the Chief Executive of Rochdale Council to write to the Secretary of State for Health requesting as full review of the early closures programme.

The motion will be moved by Councillor Jean Ashworth.

She said: “I have no faith what so ever in the Pennine Acute. The management is horrendous and they have no compassion for anybody.

“The Trust has got a lack of compassion for the staff and the patients and all we are left with is broken promises.”

Councillor Ashworth said she “sincerely hopes” the motion will be agreed at the Council meeting.

She said: “This is not political. The Trust has done this to Rochdale. They have started at Fairfield and they have by no means finished. They are going at it with a chainsaw.

“I want this to go all the way to the Human Rights Commission – our human rights are being taken away without concern for the health and wellbeing of the borough.”

A spokesman for The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said: “The proposals outlined in the Healthy Futures and Making It Better reconfiguration programmes were subject to public consultation four years ago. They were also subject to an Independent Review Panel for reconsideration and approved by the then Secretary of State for Health, Alan Johnson, in 2007.

“The proposals were put to formal consultation by the Greater Manchester Primary Care Trusts (Making It Better) and the North East Sector PCTs – NHS Manchester, NHS Bury, NHS Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale and NHS Oldham (Making It Better and Healthy Futures). The Pennine Acute Trust supported the proposals as did the regional Strategic Health Authority. The proposals have received clinical support.

“Both reconfiguration programmes have since been subject to reviews by the National Clinical Assessment Team this year, who support both the changes and specifically encourage that these are implemented as soon as practical. The NCAT report into Healthy Futures confirms that the need for strategic change in how hospitals services are provided across the north east of Greater Manchester is now stronger and more urgent than when the decisions were made four years ago.

“The Trust is therefore implementing the agreed decisions about how services are provided across its hospitals and Greater Manchester. The changes will improve and modernise health services for patients by concentrating the resources, skills and expertise of doctors and nursing staff.”

The motion to be raised at tomorrow night's full council meeting: 

“This Council is deeply concerned at recent announcements issued by the Pennine Acute Hospitals Trust to withdraw essential services from Rochdale Infirmary and Fairfield General Hospital.

The Council is also aware of the Trust's worsening financial position, which will cause further closures to be implemented sooner.

Moreover, as a Council we are very disturbed that as a result of the Trust's financial difficulties, it has been forced to announce no additional non-recurrent funding for the winter pressures season. This will place the vulnerable and the elderly at serious risk across the four sites, and not just locally, which is in stark contract to the National situation, where other hospital trusts are providing extra funds to cope with the Winter season.

That there is concern from this Council at the level and speed of essential services being removed from the Rochdale Infirmary – 12 months earlier than was proposed in the reconfiguration plans of the "Healthy Futures" programme.

The Council is aware of the recent announcement made by the Trust's chief executive who stated that it will not be possible for Rochdale Infirmary to become a “Cardiology Centre of Excellence” due to changes in the Trust's plans.

As a Council we note that all these decisions have been made without any Public, Council, Joint Health Overview & Scrutiny and RMBC Health Overview & Scrutiny Consultations.

Furthermore, since the reconfiguration plans were proposed no consideration has been taken into account of the recent figures that show a significant increase in the local birth rate, an increase in a diverse population of people over 50 who living longer.

This Council has a duty and commitment to the residents of the Borough to make sure that the best possible provision of Health Care Services is available.

As a Council we believe that the plans as outlined in this motion are ill thought out and will put the lives of people at risk. This Council is aware that such concerns are also shared by Rossendale Borough Council and Whitworth Town Council.

We therefore call upon the Four party leaders to write to the Chair of the Pennine Acute Hospitals Trust expressing this Council's no confidence in the approach being adopted by the Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust ; and asks that the chief executive write to the Secretary of State for Health requesting a full review of the early closures programme as recently announced by the Trust.”