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Trust in £17M bid to help pay wage bill


14/ 7/2006

HEALTH chiefs at the Pennine Acute Trust are hoping to secure a £17M loan because it is running out of cash.

The Trust needs the money to pay bills, wages and other running costs from the end of January until next April.

Bosses are looking to the £70M reserve fund held by the NHS North West, formerly the Greater Manchester Strategic Health Authority, to bail them out.

The Trust, which runs hospitals in Rochdale, Oldham, Bury and North Manchester, is in the red by £21M and plans are in place to scrap 800 posts.

Just three months into the current financial year the trust is £3.5M in debt but that was in line with the prediction of a £21M year-end debt.

A spokesman admitted the loan would help them avoid 'major cash-flow problems,' but would not be used to plug up the deficit.

Speaking at Tuesday's Trust board meeting, Barry Livesey, acting director of finance, said talks had begun between the two organisations.

He said: "There has been an initial meeting with the Strategic Health Authority to talk about that loan. They've asked us for information we have had to supply for the end of August to support that application."

Bob Chadwick, acting chief executive, said there was 'good news on the appointment front' as the trust had managed to recruit one histopathologist and two orthopaedic surgeons.

But Pete Hinchliffe, Unison representative, said the lack of extra information on the planned job cuts was having a demoralising effect on staff.

He said: "They really want more detail."

Mr Chadwick said: "I'm aware of this and we are working furiously to alleviate that. There has been a lot of misreporting and misquoting and that makes it worse, but we're doing everything possible so people don't get too anxious.

"Hopefully, in the next few weeks we will be able to share what is happening and what is going on."


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Most recent 1 of 1 user comments

   Enough is enough,the state of the Pennine Acute Trust is absolutely dire. It is about time the faceless people who are running it into the ground are brought to account for their actions. In reality what they are promoting is an Unealthy Future in the disguise of a Healthy one. They are slowly dismantling all of our essential services right from under our noses. Our Rochdale hospital have always been an excellent effective quality service provider, from delivering our babies, caring for our sick children and adults alike whether it be an emergency situation or an investigative procedure, all of which are carried out by highly skilled caring professioinals. It can be clearly seen That present morale has fallen to an all time low because of all the uncertainty and negativity these highly paid faceless people are inflicting on all the hard working staff. The so called Healthy Future is all cash-driven, It's not about improving quality and access to patient care, its about thinning out and cutting essential services, closing beds and probable redundancies, in order to recoup the enormous deficit they have accumulated . I am not opposed to change and moving forward, on the contrary I welcome and embrace any change that promotes a positive outcome. However, I am opposed to the clearly backward steps being imposed upon us which will adversley effect the lives of every person in Rochdale. (Please publish)
Margaret Jones, Rochdale
18/08/2006 at 23:22
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