Paediatrician speaks out on move of maternity and children’s services

Recent debate on the Rochdale Online message board and letters in a number of local newspapers have claimed that there are plans to move maternity and children’s services from Rochdale Infirmary, Fairfield General Hospital and The Royal Oldham Hospital to North Manchester General Hospital.

Dr Peter Powell, Consultant Paediatrician, Greater Manchester Children’s, Young People and Families’ Network has asked Rochdale Online to publish clarification.

"I am one of the doctors overseeing the implementation of the Making it Better review, and I can assure readers that this is simply not the case.

"Making it Better considered how we could ensure the best possible NHS services for women and children across the whole of Greater Manchester.

"The decision was confirmed in July last year. A £70 million investment will create eight expanded centres for maternity and children’s care at hospitals regionally, plus more care for children at home.

"This includes centres at both North Manchester General and The Royal Oldham Hospitals. Oldham will also host the first ever neo-natal intensive care unit for the north east of Greater Manchester. This means that local families with the sickest babies will have help much closer to hand - currently this is provided at St Mary’s.

"These bigger units for inpatient services will concentrate specialist staff and expertise. There will be additional staff at these hospitals to run the services.

"A number of hospitals will no longer offer overnight care to children, or have delivery suites - this includes Rochdale Infirmary and Fairfield General.  However, both hospitals will continue to offer outpatient care for children and outpatient care for pregnant women. There will be investment in Fairfield’s A&E and children will be able to be assessed at Rochdale Infirmary’s urgent care centre.

"There will also be enhanced community services across the region. In Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale, for example, this will mean an extra eight children’s nurses. These nurses will help keep children out of hospital when they don’t need to be there or get them home much sooner so it is less disruptive to family and school life.

"There are claims that the NHS will struggle to cope with demand after these changes. In actual fact, it is quite the opposite – we are making these changes because the NHS is increasingly struggling to cope right now.

"With our staff and specialist equipment currently spread thinly, we do not have the flexibility we need to cope with issues such as increases in demand, or short-term staff sickness. With larger units, we will be more able to tackle these issues.

"Hundreds of clinical staff are now working across the region to prepare for these changes. Getting the staff right is a key part of this, and services will not move before we are ready.

"It will be a lot of hard work, but I have no doubt that it will be worth it."

Dr Peter Powell