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MPs joining forces to fight baby unit axe
15/12/2006
THE FIGHT to save hospital services could become a two-town battle with Rochdale and Bury MPs joining forces.
Rochdale MP Paul Rowen met David Chaytor, MP for Bury North, to discuss raising the decision to cut maternity services at Rochdale Infirmary and Fairfield Hospital to secretary of state Patricia Hewitt.
Under the provisional decision, both hospitals will lose maternity and children's services as part of the Making It Better review.
Mr Rowen and Mr Chaytor want the secretary of state to call in the decision for further scrutiny.
But Mr Rowen said he was not prepared to accept Mr Chaytor's proposal to see services for Rochdale and Bury provided at Fairfield Hospital.
He said: "Clearly, last Friday's decision was hugely disappointing. However, the Friends of our Hospital are determined to continue the fight to retain services in Rochdale and I am fighting with them all the way.
"At this stage, Mr Chaytor and I are willing to work together to say there should be a service in Rochdale or Bury.
"But I am not prepared to see it based at Fairfield because Rochdale's needs are greater.
"We want the secretary of state to review this decision because it will mean shutting down two new modern units and spending lots of money creating a new one at North Manchester."
Mr Rowen said he was also investigating a complaint to the parliamentary and health service ombudsman which questioned whether £40M quoted as the cost of extending services at the Infirmary was misleading.
And he had written to North West Strategic Health Authority chief executive Mike Farrar over concerns about the way the decision was made.
Mr Rowen said: "This is clearly unfair and we will continue to fight Rochdale's corner."
- FEARS are mounting that the maternity unit at Rochdale Infirmary has just 12 months left before it gets the axe.
Health bosses admitted the shut down could come as soon as a year's time, although they stressed no plans had yet been made.
Carole Ashworth-Lord, an Infirmary midwife and one of the leading campaigners against the Infirmary cuts, claimed post-natal ward staff were told of the estimated closure time just an hour after the provisional decision was made.
She said: "There is a well-established team on the wards and has been for such a long time, and there is such a low turnover of staff.
"That team will be separated and divided under the changes."
The Pennine Trust held a meeting for staff working in the women and children's division on Monday where they discussed issues on planning and patient care.
A spokesman for the Infirmary said work still remained to devise a fixed timetable for changes, but they hoped to release detailed plans early next year.
He said: "There isn't a fixed timetable for changes yet. This is work which remains to be done.
"We certainly don't think at this stage that a move would come much quicker than around a year's time and that was the message at the meeting.
"We'll now be working up more detailed plans with a detailed timeframe and once that is done we will publicise details to staff and the public.
"We'd expect to be able to do that at some point fairly early next year.
"It is important to re-iterate, services at the Infirmary are being provided as usual at this stage."
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16/12/2006 at 13:43
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