Over 2,500 residents sign up to support Hospitals Trust

Over 2,500 residents from Rochdale borough have signed up as public members of The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust to support and have a greater say in how their local hospitals and local healthcare are run in the future.

The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Rochdale Infirmary, Fairfield General Hospital in Bury, The Royal Oldham Hospital and North Manchester General Hospital, aims to become an NHS Foundation Trust.

As a Foundation Trust, Pennine Acute Trust and its hospitals will remain part of the NHS but will have much more freedom from central government to manage the way it runs the hospitals. In becoming a Foundation Trust, the Trust will become a membership organisation accountable to the population it serves across Greater Manchester.

To date, the Trust has recruited over 10,000 public members in addition to its 9,000 staff members.

Angela Greenwood, membership manager at The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust based at Rochdale Infirmary, said: “Our membership is important to us now and most importantly will be important to us in the future. We are very keen that members of the public, especially our patients and their families, are given every opportunity to become members of the Trust.

“Reaching our 10,000 public membership target recently is great news. It has been a tremendous effort by all involved and we would like to thank everyone who has signed up to ensure the Trust has a robust membership, representative of the public we serve. We aim to continue to invite more people to join us who wish to support their local hospital and have a say in how we can develop and run our hospital services in the future.

“We continue to run our series of Medicine for Members’ events which give our members an opportunity to visit and tour specific departments and clinical areas at our hospitals, hear about our new services and developments, and attend presentations and talks about topical health issues from our staff experts in their field.”

Membership is free, with no obligation, and is open to anyone aged 14 and over. For more information or to become a member of the Trust visit online at www.pat.nhs.uk/foundationtrust or call Angela Greenwood on 01706 517302.