Burnley children's ward to close with services moved to Blackburn

9:10am Tuesday 16th March 2010

By Neil Docking

BURNLEY children’s ward is to close - with most services transferred to Royal Blackburn.

Critics have vowed to fight the decision ‘tooth and nail’, saying it was ‘the latest cut in the death throes’ of Burnley General Hospital.

But trust bosses said the move would improve services under the Meeting Patients’ Needs shake-up, which leaves Burnley as the surgery centre and the Royal Blackburn as the emergency site.

The move by East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust is part of a revamp beginning in October, when a £32m Lancashire Women and Newborn centre will open at Burnley.

An observation and assessment unit will be provided in Burnley where children with minor illnesses can be treated, while some outpatient and daycare paediatric services will remain on site.

But inpatient children’s beds on the Deerplay ward will be moved to Blackburn’s children’s ward by the end of the year, meaning that sick youngsters who need to stay in hospital overnight will have to travel to Royal Blackburn.

And critics said it was the extra distance parents would have to travel in the Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale area that concerned them most.

Former Burnley MP Peter Pike said: “I don’t think they fully understand the difficulty parents travelling from one hospital to another have to go through.

“To say that the bus service that is laid on is less than brilliant would be an understatement. And for someone who hasn’t got a car getting from one site to the other is impossible in the middle of the night.”

Burnley Council leader Gordon Birtwistle described the changes as ‘a nightmare’.

He said: “What we will have is a new maternity facility, but no children’s ward or paeditricians. If that is the case then the lunatics really are running the asylum.

“This is totally unacceptable. We will fight tooth and nail to prevent this happening. It’s a death by a thousand cuts and this is the latest cut in the death throes of Burnley General Hospital.

“The people who have dreamed this up should resign and have their places taken by people who understand what is needed in Burnley.”

The trust has to make £18million of savings during the next financial year starting in April. But bosses denied Coun Birtwistle’s claims that the children’s ward plan was connected to the financial situation.

Pendle Council’s health champion Coun Gary Bird said: “We cannot let this happen. They are taking away services which they promised would be retained at Burnley.

Kitty Ussher, Burnley’s Labour MP, said she had known about the move since consultations began in 2006.

She said: “They said as part of these public meetings that there wouldn’t be overnight stays at Burnley.

“I don’t think it’s the equivalent of closing the ward as some of the services carried out there will still be in Burnley.”

Ruth Gildert, divisional general manager for family care, said the £32million Women and Newborn centre would provide new, more advanced maternity services, amongst other health services for women, and intensive care for the smallest and most poorly newborn babies.

She said it was ‘publicly consulted on’ back in 2006 that inpatient paediatric services would be ‘centred on Royal Blackburn site’.

“This involves a move of the inpatient paediatric beds from Deerplay ward to Blackburn at the end of this year,” she said. “In line with this model a children’s minor illness unit/observation and assessment unit will be provided on the Burnley site to see infants and children presenting with minor illness.”

A trust spokesman said the Deerplay ward will close once the paediatric services are ‘centralised’ in Blackburn.

He could not confirm the number of beds that are being moved, or how many the Royal Blackburn’s children’s ward will eventually have.

Staff are being transferred, and there are no plans to make redundancies. A trust spokesman could not confirm how many staff were affected.

>> WRONG MOVE...PEOPLE VOICE THEIR OPPOSITION

Debbie Greatholder, 30, teaching assistant, of Burdett Street, Burnley, said: “I am on my own with my two kids and I don't drive. If anything happened to them, what about the driving expenses?”

Jean Wilson, 46, a cafe owner, of Station Road, Barnoldswick, said: “It's a bit of a pain for people who live in this area. You need somewhere quick to get to when you're child is ill.”

Philip Howarth, 39, pricing manager for a travel company, of Lyndhurst Road, Burnley, said: “The powers-that-be will give us their reasons, but we seem to be losing more and more services.”

June Heys, 52, manageress at Help the Aged, of Dugdale Road, Burnley, said: “It's absolutely disgraceful. It's going to cause the children and parents more stress.”

Sheila Tidsuell, 69, retired, of Fore Side in Barrowford, said: “It's terrible. To have to take children to Blackburn is ridiculous. It will especially affect people who haven't got cars.”

Tony Credland, 46, full-time dad, of Hallam Road, Nelson, said: “It's a fair trek to Blackburn. The junction where you come off for Blackburn is only one lane. I’ve seen ambulances get stuck in traffic.”