Ex-mayor ousted from hospital board

A former Mayor of Oldham has been axed from the board which runs the Royal Oldham Hospital.

John Battye, who has been a non-executive director of the Pennine Acute Hospitals Trust for seven years, has been replaced by a businessman from Rochdale.

Mr Battye, who was also a former Labour councillor and leader of Oldham Council, had applied to continue in the post but was not reappointed.

He joined the NHS in 1962 in the pathology department of Oldham and District General Hospital, and specialised in haematology.

He eventually became a member of The Royal Oldham Hospital Board prior to it becoming part of the Pennine Acute Hospital NHS Trust.

The new non-executive director is Edward Ahmad, from Rochdale, who has worked at executive level in a number of international manufacturing companies including textiles, automotive and machine tools.

Educated in Dhaka, Kansas City, Bristol and Manchester, he has also worked for a Yorkshire regeneration company and with charities including a multi-cultural sports and football coaching programme.

Mr Ahmad, who will be paid £6,096 a year, said: “I am pleased to be appointed and look forward to assisting the Trust in meeting its performance targets, participating in improving quality and patient experience.”

John Jesky, Trust chairman, said: “Non-executive directors have a vital role to play in ensuring that communities are seen to influence and hold to account the work of the Trust in providing quality healthcare services for patients.

“I am sure that Edward will play a key role in helping us build on our progress as we move into 2010 and beyond.”

Mr Jesky paid tribute to Mr Battye and said the Trust owed him a debt of gratitude for the hard work, interest and good counsel which he had shown during his seven years.

He added that Mr Battye’s experience would be difficult to replace.