Manchester City Council welcomes Government decision on local hospital services

Manchester City Council has welcomed the Government’s decision to accept recommendations affecting future hospital services in Manchester.

The Health Secretary, Alan Johnson, has agreed with the recommendations from the Independent Reconfiguration Panel (IRP), the body set up four years ago to provide advice to the Health Secretary on contested proposals for health service changes in England.

In Manchester, Mr. Johnson's decision to accept the recommendations means that full maternity, obstetric and children's inpatient services will be provided at all three Manchester hospitals - St. Mary's, Wythenshawe and North Manchester General.

The hospitals will be three out of eight sites for such services in Greater Manchester. Also, St. Mary's will be one of the three sites in Greater Manchester for neo-natal intensive care.

The Executive Member for Adult Services on Manchester City Council, Councillor Basil Curley, said: "This is great news and ensures that the people of Manchester have access to high quality services. It is absolutely essential to have maternity and children's in-patient services co-located at these three sites. We are also happy to see the proposal accepted that neonatal intensive care is best provided by special centres such as St. Mary's. It also now means that plans to transfer secondary hospital care services for children from Booth Hall to new state of the art facilities at North Manchester General can now proceed and building work can begin."

The NHS North West Strategic Health Authority will now ensure that the recommendations are implemented, with a detailed timetable to be issued soon.

Media contact:

Dave Hulme, tel 0161-234-4223, m 07720 936073