Baby boomer for the super Royal

MATERNITY and neonatal services will relocate to the Royal Oldham Hospital from Rochdale Infirmary next month.

The regional health body NHS North West yesterday agreed to the closure of the units in Rochdale, Salford and Bury as part of a reorganisation of maternity, paediatric and neonatal services across Greater Manchester, known as Making It Better.

The Royal Oldham Hospital, along with the Royal Bolton Hospital and St Mary’s Hospital in Manchester, is to become a regional super centre.

Building work has already started on the new £44m Women and Children’s Super Centre at the Royal Oldham, which will provide the highest level of intensive care to the most vulnerable babies.

A spokesman for the Pennine Acute Trust, which runs hospitals in Oldham, Rochdale, Bury and North Manchester, said a critical shortage of middle-grade doctors across the Trust had brought the service relocation forward to start in April.

The overhaul of maternity care in Greater Manchester was originally approved in 2007 by the Labour government but put on hold last year pending a review.

Yesterday, board members at NHS North West approved the shake-up which will see consultant-led maternity care based at eight hospitals, and a stand-alone midwife-led unit created in Salford.

Mr Olubusola Amu, clinical director for obstetrics and gynaecology at the Trust, said changes should be implemented as soon as possible to improve safety of care for women and children. He said: “When we first looked at making changes we had difficulties staffing all the units and the care in some of the smaller units were becoming relatively unsafe.

“The safety issue has become more apparent because of changes to the medical workforce.

“If we had just eight units instead of 11 there would be more senior doctors available in each of them and for more hours each day.”

Dr Rob Rifkin, clinical director for paediatrics, said” “The next few years will be an exciting time as we see the new £44m development at The Royal Oldham Hospital.

“This will enable families within Oldham, Rochdale and adjacent districts, to have their babies cared for by specialist neonatal doctors and nurses in a modern, purpose-built unit without having to travel in to the centre of Manchester.”