There was NO EVIDENCE that centralising A&E services at a super hospital in Blackburn would result in better patient care or clinical outcomes for the majority of East Lancashire people.

The Royal College of Nursing emphasised this in a report earlier this year stating there should be at least one A&E department to serve a catchement area of between 400,000  and 450,000 people.

East Lancashire however has an average population of over 600,000 yet the ONLY A&E in Blackburn is still on RED ALERT and the Hospital Trust board have recently had to scrap their bid for foundation status for yet again failing to accomodate patients in a fixed time period.

EAST LANCS NEEDS 'TWO' A&E DEPARTMENTS

THE new boss of East Lancashire hospitals 'Diane Whittingham' currently runs 'two' accident and emergency departments successfully and  these both serve a much SMALLER population than the Burnley and Blackburn area.

PENDLE BOROUGH COUNCIL yesterday called for the East Lancashire Hospitals trust; the current provider of A&E services in East Lancashire, to call for an independant enquiry to restore A&E services at Burnley.

Both Burnley and Pendle Council have again written to hospital bosses asking them  to accept that East Lancashire needs to return A&E services to Burnley so that the ongoing problems of overcrowding and poor management of acute hospital services will return stability to Hospital services throughout East Lancashire.

2 A&Es for population smaller than East Lancs

http://www.burnleycitizen.co.uk/news/4650418.2_A_Es_for_population_smaller_than_East_Lancs/