Mayor Andy Burnham pays tribute to “heroic” NHS staff as Expo 2017 opens in Manchester
Mayor Andy Burnham today (Monday 11 September) opened Expo 2017 by paying tribute to the “heroic efforts” of NHS staff for their care of the victims of the Manchester bombing.
Speaking just a mile from the arena where 22 innocent people died in a nail bomb blast at the end of an Ariana Grande concert in May, the Mayor said: “In the aftermath of the attack I felt the strength in our National Health Service in Manchester and saw a service that today is so much more than the sum of its parts. We are blessed with great people leading the NHS.”
He referred to the NHS’ 70th birthday and Manchester being the birth place of the NHS, saying: “We are on the brink of a momentous year. It was at Trafford General Hospital where Aneurin Bevan came to inaugurate the new National Health Service.
“This is the home of radical forward thinking and we have a real job of work to do to change a 20th Century treatment service into a 21st Century health promotion service. We have the ability to be the pioneers of that paradigm shift.”
Welcoming delegates to the Health and Care Innovation Expo, the Greater Manchester Mayor also reflected the major themes of the conference by setting out the city’s ambitions for integrating NHS and social care.
Greater Manchester became the first region in the country to take control of its combined health and social care budgets as part of a landmark devolution process on April 1 2016.
The Mayor was joined by Professor Sir Malcolm Grant, chairman of NHS England in opening the major health conference.
Sir Malcolm told more than 5,000 delegates to this year’s Expo: “With Manchester devolution, we are seeing an historic first.
“It will test the capacity of highly fragmented local organisations to come together with a common purpose and cross those difficult boundaries between social care and health.
There is extraordinary potential to create a new model authority.”
Simon Stevens, Chief Executive of NHS England and Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for health, will deliver keynote speeches at Expo 2017 tomorrow (September 12). Also on the programme is Professor Sir Bruce Keogh and Chief Nursing Officer, Professor Jane Cummings.
Andy Burnham was elected as Mayor of Greater Manchester in May 2017. In this role, he works with the ten council leaders as part of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority which, in partnership with all the NHS organisations in the city region, oversees the £6billion devolved health and social care budget via Greater Manchester’s Health and Social Care Partnership.
The Health and Care Innovation Expo 2017 is the most significant health and social care event of the year. The programme of speakers and events will focus on the progress of NHS England’s Five Year Forward View, which is leading the transformation of patient services in key areas such as cancer care, primary care, mental health and urgent & emergency care. Expo will run for two days from Monday 11 September through to Tuesday 12 September.
The following Manchester health organisations were involved in the response to the terrorist nail bombing:
- Central Manchester University Hospitals – NHS Foundation Trust
- University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust
- Stockport NHS Foundation Trust
- Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust
- Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust
- Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust
- Bolton NHS Foundation Trust
- Pennine Acute Hospital NHS Trust
- North West Ambulance Service