Royal to land A&E super-hub status?

THE Royal Oldham Hospital could become a regional super centre after a report recommended radical changes to accident and emergency.

The National Clinical Advisory Team (NCAT), a group of government experts, has called for a massive shake-up of services provided by hospitals under the Pennine Acute Trust.It said that the Trust should look at providing emergency services from just one of the its four hospital sites in Oldham, North Manchester, Rochdale and Bury.

As a result, accident and emergency provision could be scrapped at the remaining three.

The report said: “This should include assessment of the radical option to meet the demand for future emergency care in emergency medicine, general surgery, vascular surgery and interventional radiology on a single site.

It added: “The need now is for urgent implementation.”

No hospital within Trust — the Royal Oldham Hospital, North Manchester General, Rochdale Infirmary and Fairfield Hospital in Bury — has been identified as a potential single site.

But the news comes just weeks after worked started on the Royal Oldham’s new £44m women and childrens centre.

A £17m Christie Centre, a £9m vascular surgery and £6m haematology unit was also built last year.

Bosses at regional health body NHS North West will consider the report before sending its recommendations to the Department of Health for approval.

Under the Healthy Futures programme, which aims to improve patient safety and modernise hospital care, acute medicine will be transferred from Rochdale to Oldham and Fairfield Hospitals.

Vascular surgery will be centralised at Oldham, and general surgery will be divided between Oldham and North Manchester hospitals.

Rochdale’s accident and emergency department will be downgraded next year and emergency surgery will be scrapped at Fairfield Hospital in 2012.

A Trust spokesman said: “The report comments on a more radical option to provide emergency care from a single site and that this should be assessed when the existing Healthy Futures plans have been implemented.

“Our primary aim is to make sure that the plans that have already been agreed are implemented and we will do this first before considering any further changes.”