THE Lancashire Telegraph is today launching a campaign to ensure critical hospital services are kept within East Lancashire.
Seven specialist services at the Royal Blackburn and Burnley General hospitals, including the flagship Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), could be threatened with closure as part of an ongoing regional NHS review.
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Removal of the services would cause untold hardship to many patients and their families who would struggle to travel large distances for their care in other parts of the North West.
Our call to retain the services at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust (ELHT) has been backed by Conservative and Labour MPs, as well as patient champion Russ McLean and the Trust itself.
It has also won support from the parents of ‘miracle baby’ Ava-Rose Ramsbottom, who spent more than four months in the NICU at Burnley General Hospital after being born at just 23 weeks.
She weighed just 1lb 1oz at birth and her parents said her survival was thanks to the ‘wonderful’ staff on the unit.
Dad Gary said: “We live just five minutes from the hospital so having such a highly regarded unit on our doorstep was just amazing. There were other families there who had travelled from Cumbria, so we felt incredibly lucky and would be devastated to see it closed.”
The seven services, which also include pancreatic cancer and severe asthma care, are delivered as part of a £25 million specialist care budget and their removal would have serious implications for the hospitals’ future success.
The others said to be at risk are HIV, complex vascular surgery, hepatobiliary (liver) and pancreatic care and complex disability services.
The review, designed to provide the best care available while providing value for money, would see East Lancashire competing against health economies such as Manchester, Preston and Blackpool to provide the specialisms.
Kevin Young, editor of the Lancashire Telegraph, said: “Our hospitals are big enough to house these services.
“We urge people to back our petition to stop them from being lost from East Lancashire.
“Despite its problems in recent years, our hospitals’ trust is more than capable of providing these services. The alternative is for people to be forced to travel more than 30 miles for treatment or to visit their sick relatives. That is totally unacceptable.”
As previously reported, the seven services do not currently meet NHS England specifications, which are more stringent than the basic standards governed by the Care Quality Commission.
The trust however does not get enough money to meet these higher level specifications which has led to the regional review.
In some situations according to NHS England there is a strong clinical case for centralising specialist treatments right across the NHS, with senior doctors clustered at fewer hospitals, because maintaining standards at a large number of sites is considered unaffordable.
But Kevin McGee, chief executive of ELHT, said: “It is crucial that we keep these services because they are integral to the health needs of our population. We cover a population of over 500,000, which is big enough to maintain the services safely and keep them going. There’s a really strong case for them to be provided locally.”
Retaining the services will also be necessary to attract the best staff in the future, Mr McGee added.
ELHT was placed in special measures last year after inspectors made a wide-ranging criticisms of the way it had been run over several years, but this was lifted earlier this year after ‘significant improvements’ were made.
Russ McLean, chairman of the Pennine Lancashire Patient Voices Group, said: “To think these services might disappear from our hospitals is appalling.
“I would like to thank the Telegraph for this campaign.”
Graham Jones, Labour MP for Hyndburn and Haslingden, said: “These are not trivial services. A significant number of my constituents rely on being able to easily access these services on a regular basis.”
Andrew Stephenson, Conservative MP for Pendle, said: “I support the campaign and will work on a cross-party basis to make sure these services are kept within East Lancashire.”
No-one at NHS England, which commissions specialised services, was available for comment yesterday.
But the organisation’s recent five-year plan said there was a ‘compelling case for greater concentration’ of some specialised services, while strengthening the provision of routine care in the community.
It said: “In these (specialised) services there is a strong relationship between the number of patients and the quality of care, derived from the greater experience these more practised clinicians have, access to costly specialised facilities and equipment, and the greater standardisation of care that tends to occur.”
It pointed to stroke care in London, where 32 units were merged into eight specialist units and achieved a 17 per cent reduction in mortality rates.
The services under review
PANCREATIC CANCER - 11th most common cancer and can be treated through surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
HEPATOBILIARY AND PANCREATIC SERVICES - Provides treatment for people with liver, pancreatic, biliary and gall bladder disorders.
NEONATAL CRITICAL CARE - For seriously ill babies
HIV SERVICES - There is no cure but the aim is to reduce HIV in the blood.
RESPIRATORY/SEVERE ASTHMA SERVICE - Systematic assessment and specialist care.
COMPLEX VASCULAR SERVICES - For disorders of the arteries, veins and lymphatics, such as an abdominal aortic aneurysm.
COMPLEX DISABILITY (WHEELCHAIR) SERVICE - For patients requiring specialist wheelchair services
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