War of words over Independent Reconfiguration Panel submission

Simon Danczuk

A war of words has broken out between local Liberal Democrats and Labour’s Parliamentary Candidate Simon Danczuk following Mr Danczuk's claim in a statement to Rochdale Online on Wednesday (5 December) over his role in the battle to save services at Rochdale Infirmary in which he said: “I made a lengthy submission earlier this year to the Independent Reconfiguration Panel (IRP), which highlighted these concerns when the Healthy Futures proposals were being considered.”

The Lib Dems have pointed out that all submissions and communication to the Independent Reconfiguration Panel – whether verbal, emailed, written or even at meetings - is a matter of public record and Mr Danczuk's name is not included in the extensive list of communicants in the Independent Reconfiguration Panel report.

A Lib Dem spokesman said: "The Independent Reconfiguration Panel had nearly 70 meetings in the period 12 March – 14 June.  Despite the fact that members of the public were allowed to attend many of these meetings, Mr Danczuk did not attend any. The panel also received 462 letters of objection.  Amongst them were names like former MP Sir Cyril Smith, hospital campaigner Councillor Jean Ashworth and Rochdale’s ‘Man of the year’ – Father Arthur Nearey.  Mr Danczuk is not listed."

Mr Danczuk is adamant he made a submission to the IRP and has provided Rochdale Online with a copy of a six page submission and a covering letter, however this is dated the 19 June, which may explain why Mr Danczuk's name does not appear on the list of communicants as the deadline for submissions was 14 June.

The conclusion of Mr Danczuk's belated submission does make his position clear on the changes:

"In summary the proposal to withdraw emergency surgery is supported, with the condition that this is provided at the other 3 Pennine Acute sites. The associated changes to A&E in Rochdale are supported providing access to life-threatening emergency care is maintained. The proposal to reduce emergency medical admissions is not supported. The proposal to with draw 24 hour in-patient paediatric and obstetric is not supported."

A spokesperson for Simon Danczuk said: “I'm sure the Lib Dems would rather quibble over whether Simon’s submission was on time or not, but surely we should be looking at how the changes will affect people in Rochdale and how this information should be responsibly conveyed to the public?
 
“The fact remains that Paul Rowen said that change was inevitable. Now it looks like the Lib Dems were against any changes all along. If Paul Rowen is not against change, like he has repeatedly said, and believes that certain changes are inevitable, what changes do they accept?”
 
He added that Mr Danczuk had taken a stand on this matter because he wanted to see a responsible debate on healthcare in Rochdale. He added: “The Lib Dems, it would seem, do not want to step up to the plate and enter into any sensible debate on healthcare. They would rather rely on populist sentiment, daft slogans and scoring cheap political points instead of looking at the best way to improve health outcomes in Rochdale.”