Hospital to close half its theatres
TRUST SAYS OPERATIONS WON’T BE CANCELLED, BUT COUNCIL IS CONCERNED OVER ‘DOWNGRADING’
NORTH Manchester General Hospital could shut up to half its operating theatres due to structural issues, the M.E.N. has learned sparking renewed fears it is being quietly downgraded.
Pennine Acute NHS Trust, which forms part of the Northern Care Alliance chain, has already shut four theatres at the Crumpsall site after a buildings review showed issues with engineering, electrical and air ventilation systems – although it currently plans to reopen them.
Trust chiefs could also close a further two for the same reasons, which would mean half of its 12 theatres would be shut.
While the Trust insist the hospital has enough spare capacity to ensure operations can still be carried out as planned, council bosses are understood to have deep concerns.
They fear the Trust - which had been due to hand over North Manchester to the newly-formed Manchester Foundation Trust in the coming months - is effectively ‘asset stripping’ ahead of that transfer.
Several senior council insiders said the situation had the potential to ‘kick off’ as a result, while a health source admitted to expecting a ‘hoo-hah’ about the move.
Pennine says it started reviewing North Manchester General’s ageing estate a fortnight ago, leading to the initial four theatre closures. “The plan is to temporarily close these older operating theatres until the estates assessment and any work has been completed, although we can accommodate patients in our existing theatres due to the relatively low numbers of patients (surgery sessions) that undergo surgery in these older theatres at NMGH,” said the Trust.
The same piece of work could result in a further two being closed, it added, in order to carry out the same assessments.
It is understood council figures have now urgently sought clarification over the move, which comes in the midst of a complicated transfer process for the hospital - one intended to move it into the same trust as Manchester Royal Infirmary and Wythenshawe hospital.
That process - the result of a review commissioned by the council two years ago - is intended to save money and ensure health and social care for the city lines up into the same footprint, a plan Manchester’s health and council bosses say will also improve services. It is understood that transfer is already running a year behind, with health and council chiefs now expecting it to be complete in April 2020. As a result Pennine’s move has sparked worries that by the time North Manchester is transferred out, it will have lost capacity, while commissioners in Bury, Salford and Rochdale may have started moving operations to hospitals in those areas, which are also run by Northern Care Alliance. The Trust did not respond directly to that concern when approached by the M.E.N. A spokesman said Pennine was working hard to ensure there is ‘no disruption’ to patients, adding that all operations affected have been accommodated in other theatre sessions at the hospital. “We are confident at this stage that no patients will have their operations cancelled as we will be able to accommodate them in our other available theatres,” they said. Pennine also stressed that no patients had been put at risk, adding: “Our theatres are not unsafe. We have no evidence that to date there has been any impact or harm to patients who have undergone surgery in these theatres.”