Salford: Woman fights for NHS cancer drug

A woman terminally ill with kidney cancer could now be given a drug which could prolong her life, after a High Court ruling - reports ITV News.

Sutent has not yet been approved by the government and is not automatically available on the NHS.

Jean Murphy, a 62-year-old grandmother from Salford, had twice been denied the drug by Salford Primary Care Trust on the grounds that it is too expensive.

Dr Mike Burrows from the trust said before the ruling: "We have a limited amount of resources and have to make decisions on which treatments we are prepared to fund and which we cannot fund. We have to use health economics to support those decisions."

Ruling on the case, Mr Justice Burnett said the Trust's commissioning panel had failed to consider Mrs Murphy's application "in the round", and to take into account her day-to-day responsibility for caring for her husband who has a heart condition and diabetes.

This is yet another example of how the abject waste of £115 million a week paid to the audit-failing European Union - an unjustifiable 63% increase on the annual amount Britain paid between 2001-06 - is causing real suffering and shortfalls in essential public services.

In particular, Salford MP Hazel Blears needs to explain why she voted to approve paying this extra money to the EU while her local hospital clearly cannot provide services her constituents need, and blame a "limited amount of resources".

With public finances tightening, we can no longer afford to hand over so much money to the European Union. Especially as the "majority" of the EU's spending has not been approved by auditors for 13 years running, and there are so many reports of waste and fraud - going on even within EU institutions themselves.

Evidence continues to grow that it's time to Stop the Cheques to the EU.

Salford: Closing unit safest for babies

A hospital where maternity care is soon to be axed has become the first in the country to achieve the highest ratings for emergency and baby safety - reports the Manchester Evening News.

Staff at Hope Hospital in Salford have been given the coveted 'level three' safety ratings from the NHS Litigation Authority after a series of tough risk assessments.

They had to prove they have good safety policies in place, can deal with medical and maternity emergencies quickly and have improved care.

The unit is set to close by 2011 as part of a controversial shake-up of regional maternity care, but managers say staff decided to go for the gold standard to show local people the decision was not a reflection on the care they provide.

Politicians who fought to save the service commended staff for proving the unit was one of the best in Greater Manchester to have a baby - and say it makes the closure decision all the more disappointing.

Deborah Carter, the associate director of women's and child services, said: "I have to congratulate our staff, who have been working with uncertainty for years and - more recently - the knowledge their department will close.

"They made a huge effort to drive up standards to reach this very difficult target. They want people to understand the closure does not in any way reflect the level of care here."

Salford council leader John Merry, who led the campaign to save the unit, said: "I would like to congratulate staff for working hard to meet this very difficult target and demonstrating to local people they are receiving the very best care.

"This news makes the closure decision a bit more disappointing, but the skills the staff have built up will not be lost."

Almost 3,000 babies are born at Hope each year and its 12-bed special care baby unit and nine-bed neo-natal intensive care unit is one of the largest in the region.

Salford PCT is now considering funding a midwifery-led unit at Hope. Having level three status also means the trust is likely to save around £1m over the next three years - by paying lower premiums to cover itself against legal claims.

In the shake-up, maternity and children's inpatient care will be cut from 14 to eight sites at North Manchester, Stepping Hill, Tameside, Wythenshawe and Wigan, with super-centres providing intensive care for the sickest babies in Manchester, Oldham and Bolton.

Four maternity units to be shut for a service led by midwives

Plans to close "vital" hospital services in Greater Manchester that have been newly approved by the Health Secretary have been slammed by a local MP as likely to "cost lives" - reports The Times.

A review of NHS services ended yesterday with Alan Johnson’s endorsement of an independent panel’s recommendation to close maternity units at Fairfield in Bury, Rochdale Infirmary, Trafford and Salford Hope.

Salford will also lose its neonatal intensive-care unit.

The Independent Reconfiguration Panel has also backed plans to down-grade Rochdale’s A&E unit and end emergency surgery at Fairfield Hospital.

The changes are expected to happen within five years and are likely to mean more home births and deliveries in units staffed by midwives.

Paul Rowen, the Liberal Democrat MP for Rochdale, accused Mr Johnson yesterday of “wielding the axe” in Greater Manchester to cut costs.

Tens of thousands of people had signed a petition against the closure of the hospital’s maternity unit, he said. “I am furious that we have been ignored.”

The panel said that local NHS trusts should 'consider' creating stand-alone midwife-led units at Bury, Salford and Trafford. But the Royal College of Midwives said that midwifery staff might not cope with the work demands.

Ministers defended the changes. Hazel Blears, the Communities Secretary and MP for Salford, perversely said that she was “very pleased” that her constituency was in line to have a stand-alone midwife-led unit, preferring to cling to that dim prospect while ignoring the fact that the unit at Salford Hope hospital will be shut down.

Back in December Ms Blears joined picket lines to protest over proposals to close that maternity unit at Hope Hospital, despite supporting the national policy on maternity changes. Yet now the axe has fallen, she appears to be welcoming the closure as good news.

“As a local MP I have made representations at every stage to ensure that babies can still be born in Salford, and this is still the case.” she said.

Certainly babies will "still be born", Ms Blears. The question is, what kind of care will they get as a result of these cutbacks?

Manchester: Hospital closures and cuts 'will cost lives'

Plans to downgrade A&E and maternity services in Greater Manchester were approved yesterday amid claims the changes will cost lives - reports the Daily Telegraph.

Under the plans approved yesterday by an independent panel and Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, Rochdale Hospital's maternity and in-patient paediatrics services will close.

Its A&E will be downgraded to an urgent care centre and emergency surgery will be moved out.

Tens of thousands of people signed a petition against the closure of the maternity unit.

Fairfield Hospital in Bury will lose its maternity service, inpatient paediatrics and emergency surgery although A&E will remain.

In Salford, maternity and inpatient paediatrics services at Hope Hospital will close and its neonatal intensive care unit will move to the Royal Bolton Hospital. Trafford Hospital will lose its maternity services and inpatient paediatrics.

Managers say the changes will ensure patients are treated safely, but Paul Rowen, the Liberal Democrat MP for Rochdale, accused Mr Johnson of "wielding the axe" in Greater Manchester.

"The Labour Government ought to be ashamed of themselves. This decision by Mr Johnson will cost lives," he said.

Hazel Blears, the communities secretary and Salford MP, said she was "pleased" by the recommendation that Salford should have a stand-alone midwife-led unit.

In December, she was accused of hypocrisy after joining picket lines to protest over the proposals.

Manchester: Midwives 'dismayed' at fewer units

Midwives have condemned the decision to cut maternity and children's care from 12 to eight hospitals in Greater Manchester and challenged health chiefs to reveal exact bed numbers - reports the Manchester Evening News.

Senior figures in the Royal College of Midwives are "dismayed' by the plans, which will mean babies will only continue to be born in hospitals in Trafford, Salford, Bury and Rochdale after 2011 if health chiefs decide to set up stand alone midwife-led units.

The RCM claim health chiefs `got their sums wrong.' Politicians in Bury, Trafford and Salford have also reacted angrily to the cuts.

But health chiefs defended the plans, saying they would create more beds and improve safety. There were no exact bed numbers available.

Dr Maria Barrell, director of the Royal College of Midwives, said she was speaking out against the plan to protect women's safety.

She said: "I am very concerned that the reduced capacity of Greater Manchester's maternity units will not be able to cope with the demand of an increasing birth rate.

"Midwives are already struggling to provide the quality of care that patients expect and deserve. The government says that extra investment will compensate for the closures, but it seems to me they're got their sums wrong."

Leila Williams, director of the Children, Young People and Families Network, the organisation behind the maternity review, said: "There will be more beds after these plans are brought in. The whole point of Making It Better was to improve the safety for women and children's services across the region."

Health bosses in Bury, Salford and Trafford are now considering the option of midwife-led units.

Edna Robinson, the chief executive of Trafford Healthcare, said: "We are obviously still disappointed that our services will alter. However we do still understand and support the principles of the changes.

"We are very excited by the prospect of establishing a Birth Centre at Trafford General."

Margaret Morris, Chairman of Salford Royal, said: "We are bitterly disappointed with this news.

"We have a track record in delivering high quality care through our maternity and neonatal services."

Coun Yvonne Creswell deputy leader of Bury Council said: "The decision to downgrade the maternity unit is devastating for all those people who fought so hard to keep it open.

"It will deny thousands of Bury resident's access to local maternity services and is nothing short of betrayal."

Hundreds of NHS staff march against job cuts

Hundreds of health workers took to the streets to protest at cuts to NHS jobs and services, reports the Manchester Evening News.

Campaigners - protesting against the government for slashing budgets - marched through Manchester and staged a rally in Albert Square.

It was part of a national day of action by the NHS Together alliance of unions and other organisations.

Karen Reissman, chair of the Manchester branch of Unison for community and mental health services, warned the crowd of about 400 that the NHS was under threat.

She said: "In a few years time we won't have a National Health Service to defend, unless we act now.

"The scale on which the NHS is being attacked is unprecedented. It isn't as if Britain isn't a rich country and can't afford a decent NHS. It most certainly can."

The action was also in support of 250 mental health workers who have been on strike over cuts in jobs and services, downgrading of jobs and threats of privatisation.

Lillian Elliot, a union rep in the national blood service, said it was facing the threat of nine blood processing and testing centres being reduced to just three.

She said: "If this comes to pass, we will see vital blood supplies spending most of their time on a motorway."

Angela Murphy, a senior radiographer at Hope Hospital in Salford, said staff face having to work two-and-a-half hours a week more while pay increases are less than inflation. She said: "We are also facing the possibility of redundancies and there are lot of very angry people within the profession."

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber sent a good luck message to the organisers saying: "I know that NHS staff in Manchester take real pride in the improvements in health care delivered in recent years."

An NHS Together banner was raised at the peak of England's third highest mountain - Skiddaw in the Lake District - to support the day of action.

Salford: Blears branded ‘hypocrite’ in closure row

Cabinet Minister Hazel Blears was yesterday accused of hypocrisy after joining protests against the closure of the maternity unit of a hospital in her constituency – reports the Yorkshire Post.

The Labour Party chair insisted she supports the government’s plans to "reconfigure" services in the NHS but said this should not stop her from opposing a particular closure as a constituency MP.

The maternity unit as Salford’s Hope Hospital is slated for closure as part of a reorganisation of mothers’ and children’s services agreed earlier this month by primary care trusts (PCTs) in the Greater Manchester area.

The changes are part of a programme of reconfiguration of the NHS, which chief executive David Nicholson has said will lead to 60 closures – mainly of maternity and casualty units – in the coming years.

Campaigners at Health Emergency accused Ms Blears of riding on the back of local protests while being complicit in government policies which are driving closures.

"There are 29 hospitals up and down the country facing the immediate threat of cuts and closure to key services in 2007", said head of campaigns Geoff Martin.

"If the closure of maternity services is wrong in Salford its wrong in all those other parts of the country as well, and Blears should be piling on pressure to ditch the cuts policy or she should resign."

Liberal Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb said: "This is astonishing behaviour from Hazel Blears – you cannot back a policy on the national stage and then campaign against it in your own constituency."

- Article contributed by: B.S., Hull