Posted By: Ibrar Khan
Date Posted: 07/04/2010

In a few weeks time I will be standing down as a councilor and I certainly won’t miss the regular scare stories and deliberate falsehoods served up by Rochdale’s Lib Dems. It seems this is their only means of trying to stay in power. With a General Election rapidly approaching I am disappointed to see Paul Rowen’s team putting out leaflets claiming that Rochdale Infirmary could be closed. This is not true and Paul Rowen knows it. But of course we’ve been here before with the Lib Dems. In 2005 in Withington they told people that Christies hospital would close. It didn’t. And earlier this year, they were caught out by a national newspaper cooking up another scare story about a hospital closure in London. This, I have to say, is the worst possible kind of politics. So let’s look at the facts. Despite claiming to be fighting to keep hospital services open, Paul Rowen has not had one single conversation with the chief executive of the Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, John Saxby, this year. I wonder why? John Saxby has said there are absolutely no plans to close A&E at night. Sir Jonathan Ashbridge, programme director for Healthy Futures, has also stated that Healthy Futures have not been approached on any proposals to close Rochdale A&E at night. Furthermore, this week, the Minister of State for Public Health, Mike O’Brien, said that, contrary to the propaganda put out by Paul Rowen, “there are no 'secret plans' to close his accident and emergency department overnight.” Will this stop Paul Rowen and Jean Ashworth spreading scare stories? Of course not. They’re not interested in the facts. And they’re not interested in what’s good for Rochdale. Only what’s good for them. I think the last word here, though, should be about Jean Ashworth. She was quick to use her councilor diary to make a desperate attack on Simon Danczuk. So let her try and answer this. What kind of MP decides to rush out a press release claiming A&E will close at night without even picking up the phone to speak to John Saxby first? And just what is the Lib Dems policy on the NHS? Unlike Labour, the Lib Dems say they won’t ring fence the NHS from cuts. The Lib Dem leader has also publicly stated: “Britain needs savage cuts”. In Rochdale the Lib Dems are already cutting services to the bone. To pretend that you are fighting to protect public services is simply not credible.