HEALTH chiefs will this week undertake a review into how urgent care is provided in East Lancashire.

Representatives of NHS North West will spend two days visiting Burnley General Hospital and Royal Blackburn Hospital as part of its review.

It follows East Lancashire Hospital NHS Trust’s (ELHT) decision to axe Burnley’s blue-light provision in 2007.

They will also conduct a series of interviews and meetings with with ‘key stakeholders’ including Pendle MP Gordon Prentice.

But other campaigners who have not been invited to attend the review have spoken of their frustration.

The review group intends to meet with key stakeholders including clinicians, ELHT’s medical director, chief executives of NHS East Lancashire and ELHT and representatives of the North West Ambulance Service.

MPs and staff from urgent care centres and patient groups will also be involved.

But former Burnley MP Peter Pike and ex-hospitals chairman Ian Woolley have not been made aware of the probe, despite asking to be kept ‘in the loop'.

Mr Pike said he was disappointed at the way the review was being handled.

He said: “We have both got a tremendous amount of local experience.

"We’re not trying to turn the clock back but we believe there are issues that need to be seriously addressed.”

Mr Woolley said he was ‘suspicious’ at the way the review was being conducted.

He said: “We are the people who raised the need for another proper look at this whole matter.

“It seems clear if they were doing the job properly they would have contacted us by now.

"Peter Pike has already tried to make contact some weeks ago and was told the people doing the work were away. Are they still away?”

Mr Prentice had asked health secretary Andy Burnham to commission an investigation into A&E provision.

But Mr Burnham told Mike Farrar, chief executive of the North West Strategic Health Authority, to do a review of Burnley’s urgent care centre.

The target date for completion of the review is March 30.