EAST Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust was formed in 2003, as the result of a cost saving merger of Blackburn Hyndburn and Ribble Valley NHS Trust and Burnley Health Care NHS Trust.

The former Blackburn Royal Infirmary was decommissioned in the summer of 2006, and a new hospital building was built at the Queens Park Hospital site in the town, so as to merge services into a single facility.

In 2007, the A&E ward at Burnley General Hospital was downgraded, following a bitter campaign fought by MPs and patients.

The shake-up meant all serious ‘blue light’ cases would be dealt with at the new £113 million Royal Blackburn Hospital, which is still the set-up today.

In 2009 a critical report was published by Professor George Alberti, a government A&E expert, who was a key figure behind the closure of Burnley’s A&E.

He claimed there had been a decrease in beds and staff – an allegation denied by the hospital.

His report also commented on the trust’s ‘consistent’ failure to meet the four-hour emergency wait target although it praised its ‘striking’ improvements in clinical outcomes for patients, including lowering death rates for cardiac patients in hospital and within 30 days of their discharge.

In the same year the trust was left in limbo when chief executive Marie Burnham resigned after 15 months, citing personal reasons.

Her departure left the hospitals to be managed by a temporary and part-time chief executive, Halifax and Huddersfield hospitals boss Diane Whittingham, until March 2011. Mark Brearley, who had been finance director for the Huddersfield trust, was then brought in as permanent chief executive, on a £165,000 salary.

In 2011, the trust announced plans for a new £12 million Urgent Care Centre in Burnley, which is now nearing completion. However, the most serious accident and emergency cases will still have to be dealt with at Blackburn.

Earlier this year the trust announced more than 500 jobs were set to be axed, raising major concerns for patient care.

Department bosses Royal Blackburn and Burnley General were told to draw up plans to reduce their workforce as finance chiefs sought to save £85million over five years.