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D-day looms for A and E department


5/ 9/2006

IT'S D-DAY for hospital staff and patients next Thursday when the future of the accident and emergency unit at Rochdale Infirmary will be revealed.

The Healthy Futures joint committee will announce whether or not A&E care is to be scrapped to be replaced by an urgent care centre.

Representatives of the six primary care trusts involved in the Healthy Futures meeting will meet to discuss the results of the public consultation and proposed options.

If the option preferred by senior health bosses is passed, the Infirmary would be turned into a locality hospital, with an urgent care centre.

Tens of thousands of people joined in the Observer's five-month long Hands Off Our Hospital campaign against service cuts at the Infirmary, which culminated in a rally to 10 Downing Street.

The future of maternity, children's and neo-natal care in Rochdale, which comes under the separate Making It Better consultation, will be decided in December.

It is estimated that whatever changes are announced, they will take at least five years to come into effect.

Keith Surgeon, chief executive of Healthy Futures, said: "The decision will be provisional as it needs to be compatible with the outcome of the Making it Better consultation, which will not conclude until December."


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Most recent 2 of 2 user comments

   How can the people of rochdale cope without an A anbd E ? Yes we may get an urgent care centre but what is the criteria for attending it! There is already a walk in centre across the road (always wondered why built so close). So will sick people including children have to be taken to another hospital? time is of the essence. Maybe this is the start of things to come taking services from us bit by bit. Lives will be lost, then it will be to late.
LB, Rochdale
13/09/2006 at 12:34
   I just hope they know what they are doing, to close the A/E department and open it as an urgent care centre will put enormous pressure on the Ambulance service, it will also cause added stress to the Staff, and also the Family & Parents of Patients when having to travel further to other A/E units & Maternity units with life threatening cases on board. The people of the Rochdale area pay to have a good service to hand, not to be told that it will be better if we reduce the sites and improve the services in other areas. Start saving monies by reducing the top heavy Management structure instead of cutting services to the Paying customer the PEOPLE of the Rochdale area
Ross, Rochdale
8/09/2006 at 06:10
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