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Fair deal may have been so different

Frank Wood
10/ 1/2007

FAIRFIELD Hospital could have suffered a far worse fate in the health shake-up.

One of the three options for change would have meant the hospital losing its accident and emergency unit.

That would have meant patients needing urgent, life-saving treatment would have been taken to other hospitals, primarily Royal Oldham.

But the Joint Committee of Primary Care Trusts made it clear when public consultation documents went out last January that keeping A&E at Fairfield was its preferred option.

Councillor Colin Lambert, who fought in vain to keep maternity and children's wards at Fairfield, believes the hospital's A&E unit now takes on a more vital role to a much wider catchment area, with the loss of A&E at Rochdale Infirmary.

He said: "I think this means the future of Fairfield is now secure and I also think that it will mean it will not be long before they are looking again at Fairfield and deciding not whether to cut services but where they can expand them.

"I am still very concerned that we are losing the special care baby unit and maternity services and I am very disappointed that we failed to save them.

"But I believe those services will have to be looked at again in the near future.

"What we now need is a full debate on what hospital provision is needed north of the M60."

Tim Presswood, chairman of the joint committee which gave the go-ahead for the Healthy Futures plan on Friday, has stressed again that doing nothing was not an option.

He said: "We have taken a long and very thorough look at how the NHS can provide the best care for patients in the north east of Manchester.

"Improvements in healthcare and changes in health needs mean patients no longer have to go into hospital for every type of treatment.

"That's why Healthy Futures has never been just about hospitals: it is also about investing heavily in community health services so patients get easier access to the care they need."

He said the public consultation followed two years of discussion with more than 500 clinicians.

He added: "Their overwhelming belief was that, without these changes, patients could not be guaranteed safe and effective treatment of the highest quality.

"Despite the best efforts of the superb staff in our hospitals, it has become increasingly difficult to maintain appropriate levels of medical cover in all specialities at all sites."

Meanwhile, Bury Council's Overview and Scrutiny Committee, with support from campaign groups in neighbouring towns such as Heywood, is asking Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt to overturn the joint PCTs' committee decision to close babies' and children's services at Fairfield.