AN ACCIDENT and Emergency department that was a threat of closure has been saved.

The A&E department will remain open at Chorley and South Ribble Hospital after MP's campaigned to the Health Secretary.

MP for Chorley Sir Lindsay Hoyle announced yesterday (February 26) that the Euxton Lane site will remain open despite proposals which were made to close the facility.

He said: "I’m delighted to have received confirmation today that the ‘Our Health, Our Care’ programme (which included the proposal to close Chorley’s A&E Department) has been dropped.

"I personally lobbied the Secretary of State for Health to stop this agenda from being pursued. He listened and intervened accordingly.

"The uncertainty surrounding the future of our A&E has now been removed."

The A&E department was at risk and in January 2020, medics were drafted in to see if it was viable to restore a round-the-clock A&E unit at the hospital.

The medics concluded that there was "no clinical case" for retaining an accident and emergency department at Chorley and South Ribble Hospital due to it no longer being viable.

Despite this, after one year, two MP's have rallied and won in their campaign to save the A&E Department.

MP for South Ribble Katherine Fletcher said: "Following a long running campaign between Lindsay Hoyle MP Nigel Evans and me, I’m absolutely delighted that today Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust have announced the suspension of their review and that Chorley A&E’s future has been secured and will reopen fully.

"We've pushed in Westminster your views and I must say big thanks to Secretary of State for Health Matt Hancock, both for listening and taking this up personally, in the mist of a once in a century global pandemic, to secure the future of Chorley A&E."