Oldham Council’s Liberal Democrat opposition have renewed their calls for greater scrutiny of the Northern Care Alliance (NCA), which runs NHS services in the Borough, after it emerged that only 4% of those who were fit enough to be discharged were actually leaving hospital in early January.
Liberal Democrat Leader and Shaw representative, councillor Howard Sykes MBE said, “The added pressure these appalling discharge figures are placing on our health service is coming at a time when our A&E services are failing. Nearly 800 people waited more than 12 hours in hospital waiting rooms in December. People can’t get an appointment with a GP. It’s a terrifying time for a lot of people.”
At a council meeting in December, councillor Sykes called for a ‘joint scrutiny panel’ to be created so that councillors could work with NHS leaders to address the crisis facing NHS services.
Oldham Council Leader failed to commit her group to such a plan in December, but the Liberal Democrats have renewed calls for greater scrutiny after figures for hospital discharges revealed the worsening state of local services earlier in January.
Councillor Sykes said, “The Government has been completely derelict in its duty. They have failed our NHS. But Oldham Council cannot sit on its hands and wait for the Conservatives in London to fix things. If we do that, we’ll be waiting a very long time!”
“Councillors have a responsibility to work with local NHS services and to ask the tough questions. The Council’s leadership must now join the Liberal Democrats in calling for a proper scrutiny body for the Northern Care Alliance, because without one, people across Oldham will not have a voice when it comes to their health service.”
Local Ambulance and A&E Wait Times
Ambulance and A&E Statistics – Dec ’22 – Local Release
Councillor Sykes raises scrutiny of Northern Care Alliance (Dec 14, 2022)
Q2 Leaders Question 14/12/22: Joint scrutiny of Northern Care Alliance
Madam Mayor, I now want to turn to our NHS services.
Tomorrow, members of the Royal College of Nursing will strike for the first time in their 100-year history. Could there be a more damning indictment of this Conservative government Madam Mayor?
The decision to strike will have been an agonising one for RCN members. Nurses want to be at work – they care about their patients.
Nationally, the NHS is in free fall and it’s right that nurses are standing up for themselves and the future of our health service.
They have OUR full support.
By now it is all too clear that the Northern Care Alliance that runs our hospitals faces a myriad of complex and debilitating issues.
The pandemic has caused a huge backlog across the board, not helped by IT failures earlier this year.
In Oldham, we have some of the highest cancer waiting times in the country – with around 40% of patients not receiving an appointment within the two-week time frame.
I would like to welcome the announcement of the multi-million-pound extension to Oldham Royal Hospital. I just hope they can find the doctors, nurses, and other health staff to populate it?
Last month, it was revealed that almost 80 million pounds is needed to meet Northern Care Alliances repair and maintenance budget.
Most frightening of all, is that potential heart attack and stroke patients in Oldham are waiting half an hour longer for an ambulance than they should be.
And throughout all this, Northern Care Alliance faces no direct scrutiny from elected members. Which means our residents have no voice?
Madam Mayor, if we simply sit on our hands and wait for the Conservatives to save our NHS, we’ll be waiting in vain.
These are big problems but there is an onus on elected members to ask the tough questions.
So, will the Leader join me in calling for a joint scrutiny panel which will work with the Northern Care Alliance to make improvements where possible and to lobby government where it is needed, together and with one voice?