East Lancashire GPs slam ‘disappointing' hospitals

8:10am Monday 22nd September 2008

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By Peter Magill »

FAMILY doctors have called for a full review of East Lancashire’s new A&E after labelling it a ‘disappointment’ that treated some patients ‘awfully’.

The GPs revealed their concerns on the eve of a crunch meeting of health watchdogs that could see the controversial changes referred to Health Minister Alan Johnson.

It is the first time a group of leading doctors have publicly raised concerns about Burnley General’s A&E being shut with all 999 cases sent to the Royal Blackburn.

Critics campaigning to re-open Burnley’s A&E said it was ‘heartening to find professional people coming round to what we have been saying’.

But hospital bosses said that they were at present dealing with an unexplained and unprecedented demand.

Peter Higgins, chief executive of the East Lancashire Area Local Medical Committee, representing GPs, outlined the concerns in a letter to Lancashire County Council’s health scrutiny committee.

The group was asked for its opinion by the committee which is assessing the hospitals’ performance since the changes.

Mr Higgins said: “A&E performance is disappointing and the Medical Admissions Unit is frequently full.

“There is an acknowledgement that there are too few beds and reports from GPs are that the patients’ experience is sometimes awful.

“The pressure of the system manifests itself through what is known as the revolving door system.

“Patients arrive at the hospital as an emergency admission, their immediate problem may be sorted out and they are discharged back into the community as soon as possible.

“While no-one wants to stay in hospital longer than necessary, hasty discharges without the underlying problems being addressed can lead to readmissions.”

Mr Higgins also said there appeared to be an issue over the level of surgery taking place at Burnley General.

He said: “It seems that patients who receive their initial treatments in Blackburn get locked into the system and are not referred back to out-patients or follow-up treatments in Burnley, even though the capacity is there.”

New or significantly improved health centres have opened in Darwen, Burnley, Accrington, Bacup and Nelson during the past 18 months, amid promises that more hospital-centred procedures can be performed in community settings.

And Mr Higgins believes that these are not being used enough.

Mr Higgins stressed that it may be difficult to see how many of the current problems could be attributed to the reconfiguration and how much was down to cyclical pressures.

But he has called for a wholesale review of the current system in a bid to establish the underlying factors behind the problems.

This call echoes that of campaigners who are fighting for the return of an A&E at Burnley General.

Liberal Democrat councillors unveiled a 101-page dossier of complaints about the hospitals in May in a bid to force a full review.

Burnley Council leader Coun Gordon Birtwistle, a major player in this campaign, said: “It is very heartening that these professional people are coming around to what we have been saying for the past three years about MPN.”

Coun Birtwistle said he would be at the scrutiny meeting tomorrow in a bid to persuade the councillors to refer the matter to Mr Johnson.

Hospital bosses said they had been hit by unpredecented levels of demand which had seen 1,600 extra patients turn up a month.

In their response to the scrutiny committee, East Lancashire’s hospital and primary care trusts said a series of meetings had been held to promote the concept of ‘Care Closer to Home’, meaning more patients with the likes of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases could be dealt with in the community.

They said Medical investigations units will be established at Blackburn and Burnley, outreach clinics set up and closer support for people with long-term conditions through GPs and community matrons.