WHEN it opened, we were told the Royal Blackburn Hospital would herald a new era of health care for East Lancashire.
But the decision to close Burnley's Accident and Emergency department and centralise A&E in Blackburn has cause widespread anxiety in Burnley and Pendle.
The time some journeys might take was a major worry but we were told the new all-singing, all-dancing A&E would be much better equipped to deal with emergencies.
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Casualties had no reason to fear the extra miles they would have to travel, we were told, because there would get top quality paramedic treatment en route.
With that backdrop it is hardly reassuring to hear that the new A&E should apparently be overwhelmed and run out of beds for three hours on a Monday evening when there were no obvious incidents, like multiple pile-ups which would have explained what one patient described as "chaos".
Officials insist that the highest standards of medical care were maintained, but that isn't the point.
People should not have to face lengthy waits or be given the impression, as they clearly have been, that the department was struggling to cope with what a manager has dubbed "very high demand."
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