Council 7 September – Leaders Question 1

LOCAL PATIENTS FAILED BY ‘INADEQUATE’ TRUST DAMNED IN REPORT

Mr Mayor, my first question to the Leader tonight relates to the very disturbing findings of the report published last month by the Quality Care Commission (QCC) about our local Pennine Acute Hospitals Trust.

The Commission found the Trust to be providing ‘inadequate’ services overall, with several departments requiring ‘improvement’.

At the Royal Oldham Hospital, inspectors were concerned about ‘suitable and appropriate medical staffing’, especially in critical care, maternity, gynaecology and children and young people’s services.

In young people’s services it was found that there were no consultants in place after 5pm.  As though our children only get sick nine to five!

And in the high dependency unit, many standards for critical care were ‘not being met’ and that it was only during the inspection that ‘adequate’ staffing levels were provided, when for three years management knew of the shortfall.

Whilst none of us want to have to receive high dependency care, if we do, we surely have the right to expect to be treated to the highest standard in a unit with sufficient staff?

All of these deficiencies should be of great concern to us as the patients being most let down are amongst the most vulnerable patients in our hospital.

And can we be clear ‘let down’ means pain and death that could be avoided!

So where does the fault lie?

Not apparently with the staff described as ‘caring’ who continue to do their best with inadequate resources and numbers; instead it lies with the Trust Board and senior management whose conduct is described as ‘inadequate’.

I have been told that aside from health professionals, there are no Oldham residents directly involved in the Improvement Board and Plan put in place to attempt to address these serious concerns; can the Leader confirm if this is true?

If this is true why is there no Oldham citizen directly involved in making sure our Hospital and Pennine Trust improves?

This cannot, and should not, just be left to the so called health professionals; a number of which have close working and contractual arrangements with Pennine Acute Trust!

Does she agree with me this is a highly unsatisfactory state of affairs and a scandal that there is no one from our Borough representing our citizens?

Can the Leader also tell me what we are doing as an authority to put pressure on the Trust Board to address these shocking deficiencies in performance before the Trust goes into terminal decline?

Anything I am my colleagues can do to support her and her colleagues in this matter we will.

Council 7 September – Leaders Question 2

Pokémon Go

Mr Mayor, my second question tonight concerns one of the biggest social crazes to hit the UK in many a year and it is a craze that has been taken up across the whole nation by Britons of all ages but particularly the young and the young at heart – namely the phenomena called Pokémon Go.

According to Wikipedia Pokémon Go is “a free-to-play, location-based augmented reality game developed by Niantic for iOS and Android devices.”

What that means in plain English is that if you have the correct software on your portable electronic device that you can play ‘hunt the monster’ whilst visiting the park or crossing the street.

For those unfamiliar with the game, in essence you are able to track and catch virtual Pokémon creatures in real-world settings.

So what has this got to do with Oldham Council I hear you ask?

Well some novel ideas have been recently published about engaging Pokémon Go players with public services and in particular public health activities.

Our libraries are, whether they know it or not, virtual gyms, the only location where Pokémon players can go to ‘strengthen’ their monsters and meet with others playing the game.

Some libraries are taking advantage of this to let players know that they are welcome in to play and welcome to stay afterwards.

Some are even issuing badges to players who prove they have won a battle at the gym.

Other suggestions include:

Designating historical landmarks and public facilities as Pokestops, where special items are dropped and in-app lures can be set off, with Lure Parties to cash in on the fun;

Hosting meet-ups, and monster rather than art trails; Community get-togethers to search for Pokémon at the weekend and fund-raising events in partnership with charities.

Weight-loss and health campaigners can utilise one of the game’s key benefit – you have to walk to find the monsters and you are largely outdoors when you do so.

There is already some clear evidence of previous couch potatoes, or those holed up in their bedrooms playing Call of Duty on Xbox or Play Station are now walking and/or running around outside as they hunt on Pokémon Go.

Given the potential, I would like to ask the Leader what this Council is doing to harness this idea and whether we can work with our Youth Council to develop innovative ways in which we can use the power of this technology to connect our youngest residents with our public services?

And even more importantly use it to get people more active and therefore healthy and help tackle the ticking time bomb we have locally with obesity and in particular with obesity in young people.