NHS motion gains mixed reception in council chamber

A motion expressing Rochdale Council’s “alarm” at NHS reorganisation and how much it will cost the borough’s Primary Care Trust has been carried forward – following a lively debate at a meeting of full council.

The following motion was put forward by the Labour group:

“Rochdale Council expresses alarm at the decision taken by the Tory-led government to impose NHS re-organisation through the Health and Social Care Bill which will cost Heywood Middleton Rochdale Primary Care Trust £15,359,058

“The Council recognises that this money has to be drawn from existing budgets and therefore would be better spent on patient care rather than a top-down re-organisation which the government promised it would not carry out.

“The Council notes that since May 2010 the number of patients in the Heywood Middleton Rochdale PCT area waiting for 18 weeks or more for NHS treatment has increased by 214%.

“This Council supports the campaign to drop the Health and Social Care Bill in order to protect our NHS and ensure that scarce resources are directed towards patient care rather than unnecessary and damaging reorganisation”.

However, Councillor Robert Clegg disputed the figures in the motion and said he didn’t know where they have come from and they are not figures that NHS HMR recognise and said the motion was lacking in detail.

He added: “This council has got enough problems of its own. Instead of trying to sort out the NHS sort out this council’s finances.”

Councillor Jean Ashworth described the motion as “silly,” she said: “I am very disappointed in this motion. We have always worked together and kept this non political, this motion is not going to get us anywhere.

“At the end of the day it was the last Labour government that started these closures. The previous Health Overview and Scrutiny rubber stamped the closure of the Rochdale Infirmary.”

Councillor Ashley Dearnley described the motion as “nonsense” and said the figures were “damaging and inaccurate.”

Councillor Colin Lambert, said: “It needs a review. We are not asking them to throw it all out we are asking them to stop and think again.

“If supporting doctors and nurses and midwives is being political then bring on the politics cause they are the professionals. Not their unions, which are the attacks being made by central government, now suddenly the Royal College of Midwives are a union because union is a bad name, the BMA cause it’s a doctor’s union, because it’s a bad name, these are the people we respect and the people in the community respect.

“This was not a political debate; the people opposite with no defence have made it one.”

The motion was taken to a named vote.

Thirty one members voted for the motion to be carried, 26 against and one abstained.