Hospital investments showered with praise

SITE visit . . . from left, senior project manager Vincent Boodeea and regional director Mark Thomas show Minister Paul Burstow and Lib-Dem candidate Elwyn Watkins where the supercentre will be built

£44m super centre ‘fantastic’ for patients

A GOVERNMENT minister has hailed investments at the Royal Oldham Hospital for improving patient care.

Care Services Minister Paul Burstow yesterday met staff and toured the new Christie Centre, A&E, the high dependency unit and the haematology ward before seeing the site of the new £44 million women and children’s supercentre.

The four-storey supercentre will house maternity, neonatal and children’s services, and treat around 8,000 patients a year.

It will offer the highest level of intensive care to the sickest babies and bring 150 new jobs to the borough.

Mr Burstow said: “This terrific new development is great news for Oldham and will deliver high class neo-natal and intensive care services for the whole of Greater Manchester.

“The plans look fantastic and everyone wants to see the work got on with and completed by the deadline of 2012.

“We will have state-of-the-art facilities for women and children in Oldham, which means people can be confident they will get safe and top quality care.”

He was also impressed with the £6 million haematology unit, which opened this year, and the new and improved high dependency unit, which has new equipment and two extra critical care beds, increasing these from six to eight.

The Lib-Dem MP said the investments had motivated staff further and he was impressed at how hard they were working to improve services.

But a £120 million efficiency drive by The Pennine Acute Trust, which runs the Royal Oldham and three other hospitals, over the next five years will see cutbacks elsewhere and possible job losses.

Mr Burstow said the Government was working with health staff to utilise their experience to make efficiencies.

He added: “Every penny we save goes back into front-line services.

“It’s not about cuts to fund something else outside the NHS. It’s about efficiencies to make sure money gets to the front line.”

Mr Burstow later met with Saddleworth Carers Group at Delph Methodist Hall to talk about what the Government is doing to improve early diagnosis of dementia and access to services and a £400 million fund he recently announced for carers’ breaks.

Oldham East and Saddleworth Lib-Dem candidate Elwyn Watkins said: “I’m really grateful for the visit. Oldham still has some of the highest health inequalities in the country and it’s great that they are being tackled.”

The meeting with carers showed how the Government was listening to people, he added.