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?

Oldham Council’s long promised “game-changer” redevelopment of Prince’s Gate, Mumps in Oldham town centre has fallen through after more than eight years of delays. 

It promised to deliver a new hotel and “missing retail giants” to Oldham town centre.  Gone has the promised M&S store and in 2019, the council entered a contract with Lidl acting as the developer for the site and to deliver a budget hotel as well as the supermarket.

Liberal Democrat Opposition Leader councillor Howard Sykes MBE said, “Prince’s Gate was lauded as a game-changer for Oldham but more than eight years and four Labour Leaders later it’s gone out with a whimper.  Labour can add Prince’s Gate to long list of abortive regeneration projects they’ve championed over the years including so called plans for Hotel Futures.  We also still wait for the Egyptian Room in the old Town Hall to be brought into use, years after the rest of it was reopened.  It’s a dismal track record.” 

The Liberal Democrat Leader pressed council leader Amanda Chadderton on Prince’s Gate as recently as the November 2 council meeting in 2022, pointing out that it had taken less time to put a man on the moon than it had for Oldham Council to deliver the redevelopment of ‘The game changer Princess Gate’. 

She said that they were in constant dialogue with the developers and “they say it will be brought forward”.  But the Labour Leader has now confirmed that her administration will scrap the plans. 

“We have said for a long time they need to deliver and also need to put some effort into our district centres like Shaw, Chadderton, Lees and alike not just Oldham Town Centre,” added councillor Sykes.

NOTES

Councillor Sykes presses council leader on Prince’s Gate (02/11/22)   

Q1 the impact of inflation and Princes Gate

Thank you, Madam Mayor,

In his budget amendment speech in February this year, my colleague councillor Gloster warned the Labour Administration that if this Council continues with its current approach to regeneration and transformation, then we are increasing the risk of becoming a financially failing Council due to the massive amount of increased borrowing that will be required to complete projects like Spindles, Tommyfield Market, the Eco Centre, the new Town Centre Park, Old Library and the Cultural Quarter, the new Theatre and new Archive Centre amongst others. 

This was before interest rates rocketed to more than 10%.

I want to focus on just one of those projects and that’s the long-promised Prince’s Gate, down at Mumps.

On September 12^th, 1962, US President John F. Kennedy told the American people “We choose to go to the Moon”. 

It was an ambitious speech Madam Mayor… but it was also an inspiring one because just 2,504 days later, on July 20^th, 1969, mankind witnessed the first lunar landing.

Madam Mayor, it’s more than 2900 days since Jim McMahon set out his vision of a £60million game changer redevelopment which would deliver 150,000 square feet of retail space to be populated by the UK’s retail giants, along with 800 homes and 700 parking spaces. 

That vision has been watered down over the years.  We started with talk of “missing retail giants” like Marks and Spencer.  Now it’s a Travelodge and a Lidl.

It’s been more than eight years Madam Mayor… … and Labour still haven’t delivered Jim McMahon’s game changer, but we do have some car parking spaces.

To put it bluntly it’s taken longer for Oldham Labour to deliver a budget hotel and a budget supermarket than it took to put Mankind on the moon.

Madam Mayor, can the Leader update the council on the impact of plus 10% inflation on Oldham’s regeneration projects… and when can the people of Oldham expect to welcome the long-promised Prince’s Gate redevelopment? 

Because to-date the progress has been far from interstellar.

New figures just released have revealed the extent of the NHS crisis in Oldham.

2,756 people covered by the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust (which covers Oldham) waited over 4 hours to be seen in December. Even more alarmingly, 797 waited over 12 hours to be seen in December during the winter crisis.

Meanwhile, the average ambulance response time for the most urgent incidents in the North West was 9 minutes 58 seconds in December – well in excess of the NHS target of 7 minutes. 

Response times for urgent conditions such as heart attacks and strokes are even longer. Ambulance response times in the North West for these Category 2 emergencies are now 1 hour, 12 minutes, way above the 18-minute target.

The Liberal Democrats have set out a five-point plan to tackle the ambulance service crisis. The party is demanding the Government release the money they promised to help discharge patients from hospitals, as soon as possible. 

Liberal Democrat Councillor Sam Al-Hamdani said: “The Government’s failure to tackle the crisis in our NHS is letting down people in Oldham and putting patients’ lives at risk. How much more evidence do Ministers need? They either don’t care or just can’t grasp the scale of this problem.

“Unacceptable and heartbreaking delays mean the Government is falling far short even on its own targets.

“Far too many people in Oldham are having to wait far too long to get the treatment they need. In many cases, this is literally a matter of life or death. People in our area deserve far better.

“Our NHS isn’t just at breaking point – it’s splitting at its very seams. We need action from the Conservatives. Liberal Democrats are demanding the Government release the money they promised to help discharge patients from hospitals, and launch a campaign to recruit the extra paramedics and ambulance staff we need.”

Leader of Oldham Liberal Democrats councillor Howard Sykes MBE has said he is “delighted” that the move to allow dogs onto Greater Manchester’s trams could be made permanent as early as this Friday (13^th January). 

The trial period for ‘none-assistance dogs’ ended in October but as continued until Greater Manchester’s Transport could reach a final decision.  The committee is due to meet on Friday and is expected to vote in favour of permanently allowing dogs on trams after an overwhelmingly supportive response to a public survey on this issue. 

Councillor Sykes – who is a long-standing advocate of the policy – said, “I’m delighted that the trial period has been such a success and that the feedback from passengers has been overwhelmingly positive.”

“This will be a great step towards encouraging public transport use.  I first called for dogs to be allowed on trams back in 2015.  This is a positive, if long overdue policy.  We need to ensure that any issues highlighted through the survey or during the trial period are properly addressed.  But overall, there should be no ‘paws for concern’.  This is excellent news for dog owners in Oldham and across Greater Manchester, who can now use trams along with buses.”           

Sykes welcomes success of dogs on trams trial
Councillor Sykes welcomes success of dogs on trams trial | Howard Sykes (mycouncillor.org.uk)

Liberal Democrat proposal for dogs on trams blocked by Labour and Conservatives in 2015
Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) Labour and Conservative councillors join up to block Lib Dem proposal to allow a trial for dogs on trams | Howard Sykes (mycouncillor.org.uk)

Oldham’s Liberal Democrat leader councillor Howard Sykes MBE has called for free school meals to be extended to all children aged 11 and under. 

Currently the policy is only in place for children aged up to seven, but child poverty is on the rise in Oldham and Liberal Democrat councillors are calling for all primary school children to be offered a warm meal at lunchtime. 

Councillor Sykes said, “Free school meals are a lifeline for so many families in Oldham.  For some children, this might be the only warm meal they get in a day; and we know that a nutritious lunch helps children focus in the classroom.  The problem is that too few children are getting this opportunity and in Oldham, where a disproportionate number of our children are living in poverty, we need something much more ambitious.” 

Nationally, child poverty is estimated at 27% with the charity ‘Child Poverty Action’ stating that eight children in every classroom of 30 are suffering the effects of poverty.  But in Oldham, rates are much higher, with as many as 14 per class affected according to data provided by the National Education Union (NEU).  

Councillor Sykes said, “It’s time for the government to extend free school meals to all primary school children.  It would be one of the most meaningful steps we could take to tackle child poverty and improve attainment at schools.”

Search child poverty statistics by Westminster constituency here:
No Child Left Behind

Pop along for advice, help or to discuss any issue or matter with your local Liberal Democrat councillors.

Shaw and Crompton Advice Surgeries (no appointment necessary) held on the following Thursdays at Shaw Lifelong Learning Centre – 7:30pm to 8:30pm.

January 5, 12 ,19, and 26.

Did you know that Christmas trees can be recycled in green bins? 

They just need to be chopped it into small pieces; and the wooden block has to be removed from the base of the tree as this is too big to be composted. Any lights and decorations need to be removed.

Alternatively, trees can be taken to Arkwright Street Household Waste and Recycling Centre or left at a collection point in the following parks (from 28 December to 31 January):

• Higher Memorial Park (car park), Joseph Street, Failsworth (open 7.30am until dusk)
• Royton Park (car park) off Bleasdale Street, Royton. (open 7.30am until dusk)
• Werneth Park (car park) off Frederick Street, Werneth (open 7.30am until dusk)
• Churchill Playing Fields (car park), Wellington Road, Greenfield. Anytime access.
• George Street Playing Fields (car park), off Milnrow Road, Shaw. Anytime access.