Leader calls to scrap hospital Trust

The Leader of Rochdale Council Councillor Colin Lambert

Rochdale Council Leader, Councillor Colin Lambert, has called for the Trust which runs the Rochdale Infirmary to be scrapped.

Councillor Lambert’s call comes just days after it emerged surgeons were told to call 999 when a patient went into cardiac arrest – because their own team had been removed.

Services at the hospital are run by the Pennine Acute Hospitals Trust which also runs the Royal Oldham Hospital, Fairfield Hospital and North Manchester General Hospital.

The Infirmary no longer has an A&E department or any inpatient maternity and children’s services.

“Pennine Acute is in financial difficulty and is using the Infirmary as a cash cow,” said Councillor Lambert. “When it comes to saving money Rochdale Infirmary is the bank of savings.”

Councillor Lambert said an “open and honest” debate is needed regarding what remains at the infirmary.

He said: “We need to draw a line under what is going and start a fresh and look at what the purpose of the Infirmary is now.”

Councillor Lambert added that there are “other opportunities” that the council is taking the lead on with other NHS partners.

He now hopes that authorities in neighbouring towns will echo his calls. He said: “I know that now I’ve done this we will see something happening in Bury, Oldham and Manchester.”

Rochdale Council’s have already placed a vote of no confidence in the Trust and have backed an ePetition to help save hospital services.

Councillor Jean Ashworth who has organised petitions, a public march and public meetings, said: “This is what we have been stating all along, we have no confidence in the Chief Executive and the Pennine Acute Trust.”

Councillor Ashworth said the only way is to go back to when Rochdale was a separate hospital. To sign the ePetition visit: http://democracy.rochdale.gov.uk/mgEPetitionDisplay.aspx?ID=34 

A spokesperson for The Pennine Acute Trust said: “It is our duty to repeat and re-emphasise that this Trust is implementing changes to services as part of both the Healthy Futures and Making it Better programmes which were consulted upon, agreed and approved by the then Secretary of State for Health in 2007.

"The plans were then subject to an Independent Review Panel and were approved. More recently, the plans have been reviewed again against new tests as set out by the current Government; the plans passed those tests. Independent National Clinical Advisory Teams, involving leading doctors from across the country, reviewed both the Healthy Futures and Making it Better plans yet again very recently. The plans passed that further scrutiny and the national teams stressed the importance of moving to the new arrangements quickly.

“We brought forward the transfer of acute inpatient services, including the inpatient maternity and children’s services, because our doctors and nurses told us that it would not be safe to try to keep the services going at Rochdale Infirmary given the high number of temporary staff in post and our inability to recruit permanent staff. Because patient safety is our top priority we took the view of our clinical staff very seriously and acted upon it. The arrangements we now have in place are safe and sustainable.

“The new inpatient maternity service for women and babies based at The Royal Oldham Hospital is already delivering improvements in patient care – for example by bringing the two units together the number of hours in a week that Consultant Obstetricians are physically present in the maternity unit is now one of the highest in England. Bringing the Rochdale and Oldham teams together on one site, a year in advance of the opening of the new women and children’s supercentre at The Royal Oldham Hospital, means that the staff have the opportunity to create a single team and get systems and procedures agreed and in place, ready to move into the new building once it is complete.

“Finally, by any indicator, patient care in The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is improving.

"All recent national reports show that the Trust is improving and moving in the right direction. Our hospital mortality is down and is in line with national averages, we have greatly improved our ratings in the national inpatient survey, we have held our own in the national staff survey, and we have had two unblemished reports from the healthcare regulator - the Care Quality Commission - following routine unannounced visits.

"In any organisation there will be incidents and issues where things go wrong, but day in day out the staff in this Trust provide high quality and safe services to patients and their efforts should be supported, cherished and applauded.”