Councillor: ‘I won’t give up the fight’

Councillor Jean Ashworth

Councillor Jean Ashworth has written a letter to the readers of Rochdale Online expressing her concerns over changes to the hospital and health service in Rochdale.

On Wednesday evening after phoning NHS Direct for advice on my one-year-old Grandaughter, her mummy and daddy were told to take her to Rossendale Walk-in centre at 8.45 pm luckily they have a car but what happened to our Lift centres Nye Bevan and Croft Shiva?

‘Keep Fighting for your Hospital Services in Rochdale,’ as I write this letter Maternity, Children’s Inpatients and Special care Baby unit have all been closed and moved out of the Borough to Oldham it will no longer be possible to have a baby born in our local hospital.

This follows the downgrading of your Accident and Emergency Department which has now become an Urgent Care Centre but then again I think we need to challenge the title of Urgent Care as only minor illness and minor injury can now be treated there so anything Urgent has to be blue lighted to whichever A&E department is available, this week the staff were informed that there will be no Cardiac Arrest Team at the Infirmary and in the event of a collapse or cardiac arrest phone 999.

We were promised to become a Locality Hospital, a brand new facility offering a range of services in one location, planned surgical beds a full range of diagnostics and a Cardiology Centre of Excellence - all broken promises, none of this is going to be there for you or our families.

These changes and transfer of services are not working for your health and wellbeing. In this borough lives are being put at risk. So many promises made by government and health service managers over four years ago have not been kept, more services have gone.

We need to show our disgust in these broken promises and demonstrate that the transfer of services to Oldham and North Manchester in no way benefits the most vulnerable of people in the Rochdale Borough our sick, our elderly and our children are all suffering.

Please sign the online E.Petition at rochdale.gov.uk and voice your opinion.

Some people have given up the fight, I won’t ever give up on something that is wrong and close to my heart and with your help we really can reverse some of these ridiculous decisions.

A fight is never lost with a strong and powerful voice so please fight back lets make it a Better Healthy Future for everyone not the management, not the government, one size does not fit all regarding health, each area is individual to its needs and we are an exception to individual needs regarding health matters in this borough and surrounding areas which has been left unsafe without adequate access to care.

Councillor Jean Ashworth