PATIENTS have been "stabbed in the back" after a decision to send blue light emergencies to Blackburn was ratified, say campaigners.

The joint overview and scrutiny committee for the area's councils decided not to call in East Lancashire Hospital Trust's hospital proposals on the shake-up of health care in East Lancashire to an independent panel.

The decision effectively gives the trust's bosses the green light to continue with the shake-up which will see blue light emergencies from Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale being sent to the Royal Blackburn Hospital, instead of Burnley General.

It will also see complicated Blackburn births go to Burnley General Hospital.

But the committee, made up of councillors from Blackburn with Darwen and the county council, said they wanted hospital chiefs to come before them in a year's time to report on their progress.

Burnley Council leader, Coun Gordon Birtwistle, said the town had been "stabbed in the back", and Pendle MP Gordon Prentice said he was outraged by the decision.

Coun Birtwistle added: "How can these people sleep at night knowing they are going to send someone to their death?

"We have been kicked in the teeth by these comedians on the committee."

Mr Prentice added: "There was a case to answer. Distance is an issue. If distance was not a problem there would be one A&E department for the North West."

Burnley MP Kitty Ussher said she found the decision "incomprehensible", but welcomed the option to look at it again in 12 months.

She said: "It seems to me there were clear clinical concerns and the committee had the power to call it in."

John Amos, vice-chairman of the Patient and Public Involvement Forum for the trust, said patients had been betrayed. He said: "The devil is in the detail and we still have not been given that."

Jo Cubbon, chief executive of the trust, said: "We are confident that the new service model will deliver real improvements in patient care."

David Peat, chief executive of East Lancashire Primary Care Trust, said if the decision had been called in, the delay would have cost half-a-million pounds a month.

County Coun Maureen Martin, chairman of the committee, said: "We have got to have specific reasons for calling in a decision. Problems with the consultation are not good enough."

Coun Martin, who represents Burnley South West, said she knew there would be people who were disappointed with the decision, but that the shake-up would lead to an improvement in service.