On 24 November Oliver Carroll and Cllr Nathan Evans wrote to Sir Richard Leese and Salford’s Labour Mayor Paul Dennett (both co-Chairs of Greater Manchester Integrated Care Partnership) seeking urgent clarification on the future of Altrincham Minor Injuries Unit.
Thanks to the successful lobbying of Sir Graham Brady MP and the then Conservative administration of Trafford Council, a new hospital was secured on Railway Street in the heart of Altrincham in 2015. The hospital and its MIU served the people of Altrincham and surrounding areas well for years and had become a heavily relied-on and much-loved resource - until its temporary closure apparently due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, following a period of partial re-opening, the MIU has remained ‘temporarily’ shut for nearly 3 years despite the millions of pounds having been spent on the MIU, together with the state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment necessary to treat the people of Altrincham. The facility is currently lying empty.
Dr Kaushik Chakraborty, a local GP in Broadheath, raised the issue in Trafford Council chamber on behalf of the Conservative Group on Wednesday. He made it clear that, as a local GP, he was aware of the dire need of residents to access Altrincham MIU on the same basis as prior to the pandemic. Dr Chakraborty says "The south of Trafford, including Altrincham, Bowdon and Hale, Timperley, Broadheath are woefully served for the treatment of minor injuries, and this causes unnecessary delay and suffering. Any delay to accessing primary care is proven to worsen patient outcomes – the health of our residents is on the line and it is time Trafford Council and GM Integrated Care take notice”
Trafford Conservatives and Altrincham and Sale West Prospective Parliamentary Candidate Oliver Carroll fighting to ensure this vital health resource is finally resuscitated.
Oliver Carroll says: “My inbox has been overwhelmed by residents who desperately want this service re-opened. We campaigned for years for a new hospital. It is simply not good enough that Trafford and the Labour leadership of GM Integrated Care are wilfully neglecting South Trafford and Altrincham residents in this way. A state-of-the-art facility is lying empty whilst patients wait hours to be seen outside the borough – those in charge should be ashamed of themselves.”
Bowdon Councillor Phil Eckersley says “the Greens are the only councillors representing the ward of Altrincham, they have focused on the abstract global issues and are totally disinterested in the needs of local people. They seem determined to make our lives in Altrincham a complete misery”.
Local resident Lisa Hancock " Greens and Labour have taken the approach that this so-called affluent area deserves to be brought into line, and ‘they can afford to go private’. Labour’s cabal leading Trafford and GM Integrated Care do not recognise the age and demographics of some of our residents, particularly in Altrincham and Bowdon. We have a brand new Hospital MIU sat there empty - and people travelling miles to be seen.”
