Every effort was made to retain key services (From Prestwich and Whitefield Guide)

Every effort was made to retain key services

10:27am Thursday 7th February 2008

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We write in response to the letter from Connor Barrett (Letters, January 10) to assure the Bury public that every effort was made to try to retain women's and children's services at Fairfield Hospital.

Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) Forums were formed, as part of a new approach by the Government, to put patients at the centre of everything undertaken by the NHS. The work of forums has been part of the Government's overall strategy to improve patients' experiences of health services. Forums are independent, statutory bodies, set up by law.

In January 2006, the Forum for Bury Primary Care Trust (PCT) was responsible for initiating a Stakeholder Steering Group. This was representative of all the communities which currently use the services presently provided by Rochdale Infirmary and Fairfield General Hospital: a population of almost half a million and approximately 1/5 of the population of Greater Manchester. The Forum arranged the meetings and provided administrative support.

The rationale behind this was the feeling that the consultations were somewhat divisive with each local community trying to secure the best possible services instead of concentrating on the northern conurbation as a whole.

Members of the Stakeholder Steering Group came from a wide variety of backgrounds and between us we had a wealth of experience. Our contact list included five MPs, PPI Forums, PCTs, Overview and Scrutiny from the Rossendale, Bury, Heywood/Middleton and Rochdale areas, as well as midwives and consultants. In addition, we also had representation from Friends of Our Hospital - Rochdale, Fairfield Baby Lifeline and the Maternity Liaison Group. We believe this Stakeholder Group was unique throughout Greater Manchester.

In our response document, we clearly stated that: The proposed provision is not equitably distributed with the closure of units in the neighbouring boroughs of Rochdale and Bury. It means that essential services will be clustered around the City of Manchester where there will be greater choice than in other areas'.

We also put forward a proposal for an acute hospital, north of the M60, which would provide a high dependency/ special care baby unit, paediatric and obstetric units, plus full A & E services including acute surgery and acute medicine. This was signed by stakeholder representatives and the five MPs and sent to Patricia Hewitt, Secretary of State for Health.

In addition, the chairmen of the relevant Overview and Scrutiny Commissions and representatives of the PPI Forums met with Mr Mike Farrar, chief executive of the North West Strategic Health Authority and two of our members represented us during discussions with the Independent Review Panel.

We were extremely saddened by the final decision, particularly when we thought about the time spent during the whole of the consultation. Could we have done more? We doubt it. Having failed in our efforts, we now need to face the future and put our energy into supporting Bury Primary Care Trust to provide the best possible services in the present circumstances. We have a representative on both the new Public Panel (Healthy Futures) and the Public Partnership Board (Making It Better), in order to monitor the implementation of the new proposals.

Councillor John Smith Chairman Stakeholder Steering Group Barbara J Barlow Lead Stakeholder Steering Group and Chairman PPI Forum, Bury PCT

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