Books amnesty at Royal Oldham

Saddleworth Round Table’s community services officer Dave MacDougall (left) and chairman Nigel Hill

Round Table library scheme too popular

Saddleworth Round Table has called for an amnesty to allow children to return books to the Royal Oldham Hospital’s accident-and-emergency department.

Kind-hearted Round Table members donated £1,500 to provide a steady supply of books for young patients waiting for treatment.

They even built a shelf to hold the books which are seen as a boon in the unit’s waiting area.

But Round Table officials have calculated that the books are vanishing at the rate of five copies a week.

Nigel Hill, Round Table chairman, and the club’s community service officer, Dave MacDougall, are surprised at the number of books that have vanished from the unit.

Dave said: “We paid £1,500 to supply books to the hospital A&E department and put a shelf on the wall so that children can read while they are waiting.

“We have estimated that these books are vanishing at a rate of 15 every three weeks. We keep replacing them but they still keep disappearing.

“We heard from the hospital asking if we could supply more books because the first volumes had simply vanished.

“Since then they have continued to dribble away. We don’t know quite what has happened.”

Saddleworth Tablers are also funding provision of books for the neo-natal baby unit, so families visiting the hospital with older brothers and sisters can have reading material, too.

Mr Hill added: “We will continue to supply books to the A&E unit. We are sure they are really appreciated.”

Jan Bolton, charity fund-raiser for the Pennine Acute Hospitals Trust, said: “Children can easily become attached to a book when they are visiting hospital.

“We would ask parents to see if their child may have taken a book by mistake and return it to the A&E department or just to the desk in the main entrance of the hospital.

“This is a great service for all children and one we would like the Round Table to continue to support.”

A Trust spokesman said: “We are very grateful to Saddleworth Round Table for donating books.

“Children waiting in hospitals can get bored very easily so the support offered by organisations like the Round Table is invaluable.

“The Trust would appeal to parents to make sure books remain in A&E to benefit all the children who have to spend time in the waiting area.”