Simon Danczuk MP

Fighting for Rochdale, Littleborough and Milnrow

Simon Danczuk, Rochdale’s MP, and Jim Dobbin, MP for Heywood and Middleton, have led a delegation to discuss the future of Rochdale Infirmary with the Health Minister, Simon Burns MP, on the final day of Parliament before the summer recess.

Simon said: “Jim and I were particularly impressed that the Minister had called a number of NHS officials to the meeting to thrash out the issues and discuss solutions that Rochdale residents would be happy with.”

Those called to the meeting include: Kirsten Major, Interim Director of Health Systems Development at NHS North West; John Saxby, Chief Executive, Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust; Sir Jonathan Asbridge, Programme Director, Healthy Futures; Frank Burns, Clinical Lead, Making It Better Implementation Team; Nick Dawes, PEC Chair, NHS Heywood, Middleton & Rochdale; James Skelly, Head of NHS Reconfiguration at the Department of Health; Rhian Williams, NHS Business Unit at the Department of Health; and Anya Tahir, Private Secretary to the Minister.

Simon continued: “The Minister set out the current situation which was that any proposed changes to hospital services would need to meet new criteria set by Andrew Lansley, the new Health Secretary. These include the views of the public, views from GPs and clinicians and patient outcomes. The Minister also made it plain that previous scaremongering about Rochdale Infirmary in attempts to gain political advantage in the run up to elections was extremely unhelpful to Rochdale people.”

Jim Dobbin said: “I thought the meeting was very constructive. Simon and I highlighted our concerns particularly about the Accident and Emergency provision and possible loss of maternity services. I believe we can get a solution for the hospital which suits local people, clinicians and the Government and meets patient safety.”

Simon finally stated: “I have to pay credit to the Rochdale Observer and all the Rochdale people who have talked to me about the Infirmary – they are the ones that are helping defend our hospital and I am convinced that if we get our cross-party campaign right we’ll save our hospital.”