EAST Lancashire’s hospitals will receive an extra £2.2 million to help cope with an expected surge of urgent and emergency patients this winter.

The cash will pay for 39 more acute beds to be opened at the Royal Blackburn and Burnley General hospitals, along with 37 beds for patients needing rehabilitation care.

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The funding is part of a new £280 million cash injection into the NHS from the government, which is desperate for the health service to meet accident and emergency waiting time targets in the run-up to next year’s General Election.

This comes on top of £400 million of additional winter pressures funds already announced earlier this year, of which East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust (ELHT) has been allocated about £1.9 million.

Gillian Simpson, director of operations at ELHT, said in previous winters there has been ‘enormous pressure’ on services, leading many patients to wait longer than four hours in the emergency department.

It has also led to the unplanned use of ‘escalation’ wards, prompting concerns from inspectors that these areas were not being properly staffed.

Mrs Simpson presented a ‘Winter Resilience Plan’ to the board this week which said Ward C5, at Blackburn, and Ward 23 at Burnley, will provide an additional 39 beds between them.

Meanwhile, 13 escalation beds have been planned at Blackburn’s Ward C9, which have opened ahead of schedule, nine at Clitheroe Community Hospital and 15 at care homes in the area.

The cash will also pay for increased radiology, phlebotomy and blood sciences staffing, as well as other measures.

ELHT has fallen short of the emergency department four-hour waiting target in the past two months, but the target was met for several months in the summer and bosses said they were hopeful that performance could recover.