Residents' plea for GP surgery turned down

And today Burnley's deputy council leader Rafique Malik, said East Lancashire Health Authority members had totally failed to grasp the need of people living in acute poverty.

Coun Malik, one of several community leaders supporting an application by GP practice Syed and Tattersall to relocate a branch surgery to lower Brougham Street, addressed health authority members and called on them to give the go-ahead to the controversial application.

But despite their pleas, members gave the thumbs down to the bid because they said the Daneshouse area was already well served with family doctors.

Later, Coun Malik said he was disappointed with the outcome. "They had made their minds up to say no," he declared. "The debate was distorted and they didn't seem to understand that we were not asking for something new, but for the replacement of a local surgery which closed some years' ago.

More than 1,000 residents had signed a petition supporting the new centre which, they said, was needed because the nearest health centre was half a mile away up a steep hill.

Coun Malik added: "People do not realise there is acute poverty in the area, with a high level of elderly people and very young children in a population which is ever increasing.

"Many, many people are not healthy or affluent or own cars or can afford taxis."

Coun Malik said he would join with Burnley MP Peter Pike in continuing to press for the facility.

The health authority heard that official figures showed the Daneshouse district was adequately covered by GP practices already and the new application was not supported by the local health professionals body, the community health council patient watchdog group, or the local pharmacist.

However, Burnley Council and the Lancashire Association of Mosques had called for the new surgery to be given the go-ahead.

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