Local MP insists government must act on Royal Oldham RAAC

Following the news in the summer that RAAC (reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete) was present in schools across the country and that it presented a danger to students and staff using the buildings, there was a national review of buildings to make sure that they were safe to use.

It has subsequently been revealed that the Royal Oldham Hospital has elements of RAAC used within part of its roof.

RAAC is a lightweight material that was used mostly in flat roofing, but also in floors and walls, between the 1950s and 1990s.

It is a cheaper alternative to standard concrete, is quicker to produce and easier to install.

It is aerated, or "bubbly", like an Aero chocolate bar - this means that it is less durable and has a lifespan of around 30 years.

Oldham West & Royton MP Jim McMahon has today (Friday) published a letter calling for the government to be ‘robust’ in their promises and actions to fix the roof, with concerns raised over the governments record on their ‘lack of action’ and budgeting concerns meaning the project may be left unfinished or cause undue stress and staff and patients well being.

Mr McMahon said “The first priority in this is the safety, health and wellbeing of all staff and patients at the Royal Oldham site.

"Their safety and well-being need to be the top of the asking price when considering the impact of RAAC and the cost of bringing the buildings up to standard.

"I ask the government to make available a work plan and timescales that reduce the impact of the work on staff and patients as much as possible, while looking to make sure that the project is finished – we can’t have a situation with the Royal Oldham whereby the government promises one thing and does not deliver – as we have seen so often with this government."

The government have said they will be including the Royal Oldham in the work programme for buildings affected by RAAC, with hospitals majorly affected reportedly to be set to be rebuilt.

Meanwhile, the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust, of which the Royal Oldham Hospital is one of its sites, has seen a dramatic reduction in clinical response times since it digitised paper-based referral systems across a range of key specialties, according to an independent review.

The study, which examined NCA NHS Foundation Trust’s use of clinical communications platform Bleepa to manage inpatient referrals, identified a reduction of almost 75% in average referral times across three clinical specialties when compared to previous paper based referral systems. 

Bleepa referral data from July 2021 to April 2023 covering 10,000 patient referrals found that the average time from submission of a referral to first review across the trust’s respiratory, cardiology and gastroenterology specialisms at specific hospital sites was 0.55 days.

This was a reduction of 1.55 days compared to the 2.1 day average time lag recorded before the platform’s deployment across parts of the Greater Manchester trust. 

The real-world evaluation, commissioned by Bleepa creators Feedback Medical and carried out by specialist consultancy Unity Insights, used quantitative data from two Northern Care Alliance trust sites - the Royal Oldham Hospital and Fairfield General Hospital in Bury – to examine the impact that Bleepa could have at a hospital, trust and Integrated Care System level.

Describing the impact that using Bleepa has had on clinical performance, Georges Ng Man Kwong, Chief Clinical Information Officer (Bury, Rochdale and Oldham) at Northern Care Alliance, said: “Access to the images with the referral has been really key.

"We worked with the Bleepa team to make sure we had a minimum data set for referral data.

"This was particularly important during the Covid pandemic. 

“We’ve also found it good in terms of asynchronous working – we don’t necessarily have to traipse around the hospital with a list of patients to see referrals, we can manage them remotely.

"We’ve also then been able to message the team with clear instructions as to what’s been going on.

"The secure messaging has allowed us to progress patient care in a faster way.”

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