ROH selected as a specialist hospital

A REVOLUTIONARY scheme to change the way healthcare in Greater Manchester is organised will result in the Royal Oldham Hospital becoming a specialist site joined with three other hospitals in a shared service.

As part of the Healthier Together plans to drive up quality and standards in hospitals, Oldham will work in partnership with Rochdale Infirmary, Fairfield General Hospital in Bury and North Manchester General Hospital to combine into a single service.

A team of medical staff will work together across the hospital sites, sharing resources and expertise.

Surgery

Under the plans, the Royal Oldham will be one of four hospitals specialising in emergency medicine and general abdominal surgery for patients with life-threatening conditions.

The other hospitals in each single service will be local hospitals, where patients can visit for A&E, acute medicine, and low-risk surgery, among other services.

The plans, described as the “biggest ever shake up of the region’s health care”, were decided during yesterday’s meeting of the Healthier Together Committees in Common at Manchester Town Hall. Dr Chris Brookes, Healthier Together medical director and A&E consultant, said: “We want Greater Manchester to have the best health care in the country.

“However at the moment there is a stark variation in patient outcomes at different times and at different hospitals.

“These plans will improve standards at all hospitals in Greater Manchester, standards which no hospital currently meets.”

He added that an estimated 300 lives per year will be saved once the plans are implemented and that no A&E department will close as a result of the changes.

The committee, which is made up of clinical representatives from each of the 12 Greater Manchester Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG), voted unanimously on the new arrangements of hospitals. Manchester Royal Infirmary and Salford Royal had previously been chosen as specialist sites, with the meeting confirming Stepping Hill in Stockport as the fourth site.

The committee heard that 73,000 residents in north Derbyshire and east Cheshire who currently use Greater Manchester hospitals as their local facilities would be unable to access a specialist hospital within 45 minutes by an ambulance or car, one of the Healthier Together Standards, unless Stepping Hill was chosen as the fourth site.

Other considerations, including quality and safety, public consultation results and transition, did not show a significant difference between the four options for a new specialist site, which also included Wythenshawe, Royal Bolton and Wigan’s Royal Albert Edward Hospitals.

Standards

The proposals, which will take up to three years and over £50 million to implement, are expected to raise standards at all hospitals, with 35 new senior doctors employed across the four single services.

The changes will also result in a consultant being present in every A&E for at least 12 hours a day, seven days a week, with hours increasing to 16 in specialist hospitals.

Consultants will also be present in acute medical wards for 12 hours a day, seven days a week, with consultant surgeons and anaesthetists available in specialist hospitals around the clock.

email: lucykenderdine@oldham-chronicle.co.uk