Lack of Blue Light A & E Puts Lives at Risk

5:42pm Friday 14th March 2008

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I hope Pendle Borough Council's unanimous Motion calling for the return of the full "Blue Light" A & E Facilities at Burnley General Hospital is successful. Burnley Borough Council have passed a similar Motion. Pendle MP, Gordon Prentice, has urged the 2 Councils to meet with East Lancashire Primary Care Trust, the NHS Commissioning Body, to review the decision to downgrade this Service. This would, hopefully, put pressure on the East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust to reinstate the full A & E Service.

Presumably, these Motions have all party support. This was not the case in 2006, when the Labour controlled Lancashire County Council and Blackburn with Darwen Unitary Authority were complicit in this deadfully damaging decision.

The Joint Lancashire and Blacburn with Darwen Overview and Scrutiny Committee had the power to request a review of the decision and submit its concerns to the Secretary of State for Health but refused to do so and rubber stamped the decision unanimously.

This action seems to contradict one of the main Objectives of the LCC which claims that "Overview and Scrutiny is a key part of its Political Structure and plays a vital role in improving the services that the people of Lancashire use". It is clear that LCC failed to exercise their democratic powers to ensure the health needs of people in East Lancashire were protected.

The Public Consultation in 2006 was a sham, a 'fait accompli'. We were told that downgrading Burnley's A & E and redirecting acute cases to an enhanced Blackburn A & E was being recommended on clinical grounds and was nothing to do with saving money. Yet, there had been a 5% increase in the use of A & E Departments in East Lancashire in 2005. Now, in 2008, there is chaos and overcrowding at Blackburn - it cannot cope with the demand.

So, sadly this situation has put the safety of people's lives at risk and is part of a wider national Government Policy to close or downgrade other A & E Departments to "balance the books". The Department of Health is forcing this Policy on Hospital Trusts in order to establish Regional Trauma Centres as part of the "Reconfiguration" (cutting or reducing) of Local Services. It is not ultimately good for the state of the Nation's Health and Wellbeing.

David Penney Colne Columnist