Infirmary threatened in new NHS shake-up

The Rochdale Infirmary together with Fairfield and the other two Pennine Acute hospitals could face further drastic cuts if health chiefs’ plans to set up new care networks go ahead.

New changes to the way that the NHS works with GP commissioned services could see the end of district general hospitals as we know them and new ‘centres of excellence’ and so-called regional ‘super' hospitals being set up with specialised consultants working flat out to provide 24/7 services.

It has been previously reported by Rochdale Online that NHS insiders, including former Rochdale Health Promotions Officer Mike Farrer who is now CEO of the all-powerful NHS Confederation, has spoken out against what he calls, "a failure of leadership" and warned they must abandon short-term solutions and win public backing for long-term radical changes.

A new internal NHS report called ‘The Case for Change’ report describes the current model of district general hospital providing a variety of care services as being ‘designed to meet the needs of the last century’ and needs urgent reforms.

The report claims that lives are being put at risk because of factors such as inadequate service being provided by junior medical staff in the evenings and at weekends. It goes onto argue that care would improve and lives saved if patients are treated in specialist units by highly specialised consultants.

The regional NHS budget is around £6 billion and the review could result in further A&E closures and the loss of other services such as maternity services which is only just coming to terms with the ‘Making It Better’ consultation which witnessed the axing of Rochdale’s maternity services.

Emergency surgery is also likely to come under close scrutiny as it is currently provided by 10 hospitals in the region. Cancer, cardiac and mental health provision is also under review.

The report says that there are very ‘complex challenges’ with regard to the Greater Manchester system of public transport and says that the provision of access to NHS care is a "significant priority" to consider when changes are made.

The plan will be subject to a full public consultation but it is hoped that as well as providing money, restructuring will also have cost-saving benefits. The public consultation is expected to start in the spring.

Dr Mike Burrows, chief executive of NHS Greater Manchester said: "This is a hugely important piece of work for the NHS in Greater Manchester, to make sure that within the context of the economic downturn we can continue to provide the best possible care for the people of this region.

"It is as much about developing high quality care, more cost effective services closer to people’s homes as it is about developing centres of excellence."

It has long been known that the North West suffers from some of the poorest health in the UK. Male life expectancy in the area varies between 69 years in Manchester and 83 in Trafford.

Doctors believe that improvements to stroke services is saving around 200 lives per year in the region and they believe that similar improvements could be made if other specialties could show similar results if they restructured.

Doctors also claim that other savings could be made with regard to A&E services which currently cost £122 million a year to run across the region. They believe that many patients currently treated in A&E could be more appropriately be treated elsewhere and the say that only 2 hospital trusts received enough income to cover the cost of providing this service.

The report points the way to more A&E closures across the region with perhaps more Urgent Care Centres offering fewer services.

Since the removal of trauma care from units at Fairfield and other hospitals, the future of A&E in Bury looks less than certain and could now be particularly vulnerable to closure.

The report calls for a shake-up of cancer care as ‘compelling’ but offers no suggestions as to how this might happen.

There will be particular anger and disappointment in maternity and children’s care as these are still being transformed radically as a result of ‘Making it Better’. One insider who asked not to be named told Rochdale Online: “This is exactly what is wrong with the NHS. We face review after review after review. Nobody ever gives anything the chance to work. This is costing hundreds of millions of pounds every year. It seems as if NHS Change has become an industry in itself.

“It has a very demoralising and de-motivating effect on staff as there seems to be so little point in going the extra nine yards to get something up and running when you know that the top-brass already have their slide rules out to work on next year’s review.

“GP commissioning hasn’t even got off the ground yet but they are already proposing yet more changes even before we see if it works or not. No wonder we are all fed up and have one of the lowest results in the country in the Staff Satisfaction Survey.”

The review will also cover:

• Acute Care
• Oral care and facial reconstruction
• Neurological conditions
• Cardiovascular care
• Rehabilitation

Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust which operates services in North Manchester, Bury, Oldham and Rochdale needs to save £140m by 2017.

THE 12 HOSPITALS UNDER REVIEW:

• Rochdale Infirmary
• North Manchester General Hospital
• Fairfield General Hospital
• Royal Oldham Hospital
• Manchester Royal Infirmary
• Salford Royal Hospital
• Stepping Hill
• Tameside General
• Royal Bolton
• Royal Albert Edward Infirmary, Wigan
• Trafford General
• Wythenshawe Hospital

AREAS OF HEALTH UNDER SCRUTINY:

• Urgent and emergency care
• Acute surgery; emergency general surgery; oral and maxillofacial surgery
• Primary Care (GPs)
• Acute medicine
• Long-term conditions (Neuroscience)
• Women and Children's
• Cancer
• Cardiovascular (Vascular, stroke and cardiac imaging)
• Rehabilitation

http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/70840/nhs-heading-for-disaster-claims-health-boss