A borough MP has criticised a "voluntary resignation scheme" being used by the NHS trust which manages the Royal Oldham Hospital amid increasing waiting lists for treatment.

The "Mutually Agreed Resignation Scheme" is designed to let employees leave the Northern Care Alliance NHS Trust (NCA) in return for a severance payment, according to trade union UNISON.

The union added that the scheme was applicable to "certain non-patient facing staff", with front-line medical, nursing, clinical, pharmacy, healthcare scientist, and social care positions exempt.

The NCA declined to comment on this story, but the trust’s chief of people, Nicky Clarke, denied that the scheme was a redundancy scheme in a comment given to the Manchester Evening News earlier this month.

In an NCA board meeting earlier this month, the trust was said to have a £46.5m deficit, compared to a planned £9m, with the amount set to increase as the year progresses.

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Now, Oldham West and Royton MP Jim McMahon has written to the Health Secretary calling for the government to "rule out the rationing of NHS services" and to "ensure that the budget deficit and cuts undertaken by the NCA does not impact the quality of healthcare".

Waiting lists up

Mr McMahon pointed out increased waiting lists for hospital treatment, as NHS waiting lists hit a record high last month.

Figures show waiting lists in Oldham have also shot up. A total of 15,100 people were waiting for treatment in May 2020, compared to 36,994 in September 2023.

Additionally, just 56 per cent of patients had a wait of 18 weeks or fewer, compared to more than 66 per cent in May 2020.

Mr McMahon said: “The Tory decimation of our NHS over the last 13 years means that nothing works anymore.

“Patients in Oldham are already struggling to get GP appointments, are left waiting hours for ambulances and are stuck on waiting lists in pain whilst waiting for treatment.

“Meanwhile doctors and nurses continue to bear the brunt and are left with an impossible task of carrying the weight Tory failures on our NHS, and I am extremely concerned about the potential impact that the financial predicament of the Northern Care Alliance on staff workload and patient services.

“The government must now set out how it plans to protect the future of our local hospitals, protect jobs and safeguard services.”

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Government responds

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We are backing health and social care services with up to £14.1bn for health and social care over the next two years and we recently provided £800m to ensure patients continue to receive the highest quality care and ease pressure on hospitals. 

“In addition, the Autumn Statement increased the NHS budget for 23-24 by over £1bn.

“Cutting waiting lists is one of the government’s top five priorities and, despite disruption from strikes, 18-month waits have been reduced by more than 90 per cent from their peak in September 2021.

“The NHS has met its target to deliver 10,000 hospital-at-home beds by autumn, helping to free up capacity in hospitals, and we are working to get 800 new ambulances on the road and create 5,000 extra hospital beds to further reduce waiting times.”

If you have a story, I cover the whole borough of Oldham. Please email me at jack.fifield@newsquest.co.uk.