HEALTH chief Marie Burnham told residents there is “no chance” of the area having two accident and emergency units again.

The chief executive of East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, speaking at a public meeting on Friday, said lives had been saved by the November 2007 Meeting Patients’ Needs shake-up which saw Burnley General Hospital’s emergency facilities close.

And her medical director Geraint Jones caused outrage when he accused those calling for “blue lights” to return of giving a “panic response.”

Residents jeered when he told them “no-one at all” had argued for old-style A&E facilities both in Burnley and at the Royal Blackburn Hospital.

But Miss Burnham admitted patient number estimates in 2007 had been wrong, and said with extra beds, more medical staff and improved community care, the hospitals had a “bright future”.

Residents had been invited to the meeting by Burnley MP Kitty Ussher, who has launched a campaign to “Sort Our Hospitals Out”, demanding improved staff morale, better experiences for patients, and quick opening of Burnley’s new £30million women’s and children’s centre.

They quizzed hospital bosses on ambulances queuing at Blackburn, patients’ “horror stories” and emergency care facilities, and called for equal facilities at both hospitals.

One resident said: “I have been to Blackburn hospital and I have to say it was superb, but people want local services. Why can’t we have those facilities in Burnley?”

Another added: “If I’m going to die I want to die in Burnley, not in Black-burn.”

The hospital bosses said facilities before the changeover had been out-of-date, and put lives at risk, and that modern services could only be properly delivered if they were spread over the two sites.

Miss Burnham said fewer than six people per day were taken from Burnley to the Blackburn emergency department, with almost 90 per cent of cases treated at the General Hospital’s urgent care centre.

She said: “Will Burnley get its old hospital back?

“No chance.

“But at the end of the day, neither will Blackburn.

"They are both fundamentally different from how they were in 2007, and we need those services spread over two centres to serve a population of more than half a million people.”

The bosses said prob-lems with community care meant there was still bed-blocking, and people being admitted inappropriately, but by tackling that and being prepared at all times for peak patient levels, the hospitals would improve.

They promised to publish a timetable for improvements by the end of April, and will return to Burnley in six months to report on their progress.

But Gordon Birtwistle, leader of Burnley Council and the It’s Our NHS campaign group, remained defiant, telling them: “We deserve proper facilities.

"We have paid for them. We will have our hospital back. You won’t be there forever. We will.”

And Mrs Ussher repeated calls for an emergency department at Burnley General Hospital, saying: “I am the MP for Burnley and I want each one of those modern facilities in Burnley.

"That’s what we all want”