Riaz makes history on NHS board

RIAZ AHMED — historic second term

RIAZ Ahmad has been re-appointed as chairman of NHS Oldham, making him the only person to hold that office in the organisation’s 11-year history.

He was the first chairman of the body when it was set up in 2002 and will still be at the helm when it is abolished in three years’ time.

His £34,152-a-year job will take NHS Oldham to its end, when a consortia of family doctors will take over its commissioning role.

Mr Ahmad (57) said: “These are times of great change for the NHS locally and nationally.

“My role in the next year or so will be to make sure the people of Oldham continue to get the high-quality health services they deserve, while making sure we deliver the real changes which are outlined in the white paper.”

A former Mayor of Oldham, and local councillor until May, 2008, Mr Ahmad is a magistrate, and last year stood as a Euro-MP candidate for the Labour party.

He is a member of the Courts Board Greater Manchester, for which he receives £2,000 a year, and a Fellow of the Chartered Certified Accountants, and has run his own accountancy practice in central Manchester since 1986.

NHS Oldham is responsible for allocating money, staff and services to meet the borough’s health needs.

It also provides district nurses, health visitors, podiatrists, speech and language therapists, sexual health services, school nursing, stop smoking and healthy lifestyle services, community matrons and Oldham’s Urgent Care Centre, through Oldham Community Health Services.