Low life expectancy...High time we got the cash to fix crumbling hospital

MANCHESTER ranks in the 10 places with the lowest life expectancy in the UK but plans to rebuild a hospital that will change this tragic death sentence have been met with empty promises for the past five years.

- HELENA VESTY

Manchester has the eighth lowest life expectancy for men, at 75.2 years. In comparison, residents of the area with the highest life expectancy, Hart in Hampshire, will live almost eight years longer than those living in Manchester.

Yet, ambitious plans that could transform the grim fate of those living in some of the most deprived parts of Manchester are being met with silence.

The government is still refusing to commit to fix the decrepit hospital of these residents, where staff are desperately trying to stop them dying so prematurely.

The M.E.N. is campaigning for the government to commit to the urgent rebuilding of North Manchester General Hospital (NMGH). The government's response to the M.E.N.'s campaign appeared to delay yet again.

The government said its priority is making sure that rebuilds of hospitals primarily from RAAC, alongside those where the full business case is already approved' continue as planned. North Manchester General has been waiting years for the go-ahead to submit a full business case for plans already drawn up, and is also plagued with dangerous RAAC concrete.

The M.E.N. contacted the Department for Health again last week in light of the shocking life expectancy figures for residents of Manchester, many of whom are cared for at NMGH. A spokesperson said the government's 'position had not changed!

A 19th century workhouse'

It's now been half a decade since Boris Johnson promised to overhaul NMGH home to some of the NHS's oldest buildings. Ambitious transformation plans were drawn up after Johnson pledged that NMGH would be one of '40 new hospitals.'

The plans say the rebuild will extend the dire life expectancy of the residents served by the hospital. But we still don't know when the vital rebuilding work will commence on the place that is so central to so many lives.