General   (General discussion, talk about anything.)

Gaffer

"Nothing to do with the quality of care", you must be joking!

First of all, we were not the only parents around the Wigan area who had a bad experience at the Roy Hartley Maternity Unit. On the first occasion, my Wife was kept in a small ward at night and never saw any staff and when she requested to go home was told that there was a problem with the baby's bottom. On signing a form to get my Wife home and sending for the then district Nurse, she told us that all what wrong was that the staff had not been changing the babies nappies as they should have done and sent me to a nearby chemist for some cream which solved the problem.

On the second occasion, the anti natal unit got my Wife's pregnancy all wrong with the result that our child was born far too early, and which as far as we are concerned resulted in the disabilities that she has now.

On another occasion, my future father in law was in ill in the adjacent old Billinge Hospital and the family was so concerned about the standard of night care that they were taking it in turns to stay with him to make sure he was getting the right care and attention.

And the period in question was long before Blair was the Prime Minister.

As for Wigan Infirmary becoming a teaching hospital, I was not doubting that it perhaps could attract some top high quality consultants, but only giving a example of how money is wasted by the constant changing of the name of the trust. It was the same with Wigan Council when they changed the colour on letter headings etc from purple to green and hundreds of already printed A4 size sheets were consigned to the tip.

And when Whelley Hospital was indeed made redundant due to its services being moved elsewhere to not only the main Hospitals, but also Health Centres like the Boston health Centre and Sherwood Clinic etc, we on the east side of the town centre understood that another new Health Centre was to be built on the site and not houses as is the case now.

By the tone of your reply and defensive attitude, it tells me that you are in some way involved in the running of the medical health services in the Wigan area.