UPDATE: Anger as Chorley Hospital A&E set to close due to lack of doctors

Staff shortages have resulted in the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust saying it was no longer able to keep open A&E facilities at both Chorley and Preston.

MORE TOP STORIES:

The hospital will operate as an Urgent Care Centre until staffing issues involving mid-grade doctors can be resolved.

Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust cited 'patient safety' for the decision.

Chorley MP Lindsay Hoyle has slammed Lancashire Hospital Trust management for their failure to staff Chorley’s A&E department.

He said: "The Trust have made clear that due to a staffing shortage the A&E department at Chorley will close on Monday April 18 quoting 'patient safety' as the reason why treatment cannot continue.

"This shortage in staff has not just occurred in recent weeks and while the problem has been growing, managers have failed to respond accordingly.

“The plans to close A&E at Chorley are a reflection of poor planning, a failure to recruit and a continual trend of services being shifted from Chorley to Preston.

"I have continually warned about the shift of all emergency services to Preston and now we have seen this come to fruition. This is not a response to an unforeseen crisis but looks much more like a planned move.

“The Trust quote patient safety as the reason for closure.

"How can you prioritise patient safety by closing an A&E department, forcing people to travel an extra half hour to Preston and place an additional 50,000 people on an already overcrowded A&E department at Preston.

"This is absolute nonsense.”

UNISON Branch Secretary Pete Smith said: “This is a sad and worrying day for people in Chorley.

"The down-grading of the A&E department is not due to any reduction in the needs of the local community.

"It is a consequence of decisions taken by the Conservative Government to starve the NHS of adequate resources.

"For years the share of national income spent on our NHS has been falling.

"This has resulted in increasing pressures on staff – and now the recruitment problems are so bad that the A&E can no longer function.

"Jeremy Hunt should come to Chorley to see how his Government’s underinvestment is in danger of wrecking our NHS.”

Leader of Chorley Council, Alistair Bradley, said the NHS in Chorley was in 'crisis'.

He said: "These things don't happen overnight.

"Systematic underinvestment from Government has led to this over a period of months and years.

"The A&E department serves tens of thousands of people in Chorley and South Ribble and is key to people's wellbeing.

"I'm sure people will be furious as to how it has come to this and will be holding the trust, and the Department of Health to account."

Professor Mark Pugh, Consultant Anaesthetist and Medical Director of Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said, “Changing the current service provided at Chorley is a direct response to the immediate and significant staffing problem. 

"We simply cannot staff the rotas, and it is an unacceptable risk to patient safety to attempt to provide an emergency department service with no doctors available to see people. 

"These measures are temporary, and we will continue to do everything possible to secure all the staff we need and reinstate the emergency department service at Chorley.”

Dr Gora Bangi, Chair of Chorley & South Ribble Clinical Commissioning Group said: “After reviewing the clinical and service recommendations of Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, it is clear that this is the only safe and viable option available to maintain safe care for patients given the current staffing challenge. 

"However the System Resilience Group will review the situation on a week by week basis, with a view to reinstating the emergency department service as soon as that’s possible.”

Peter Mulcahy, Head of Service at North West Ambulance Service said: “We are working with Lancashire Teaching Hospitals and Chorley and South Ribble Clinical Commissioning group to mitigate the impact of this measure which will see ambulances travelling to other hospitals such as Preston, Wigan, Blackburn and Bolton instead of Chorley.

“To support this, we are planning, in conjunction with our partners, to have additional ambulances available to support changes in how we deliver both our emergency service and inter hospital transfer service.

“In essence, many of our patients do not need emergency care and could get more appropriate treatment elsewhere, so in the first instance consider alternatives to 999 such as pharmacies, GPs, walk-in centres, self-care or NHS 111.

“Patients who call 999 and receive a response from the ambulance service will be assessed by our highly skilled clinicians who will agree upon the best plan for their care; this will include the decision on which treatment centre is best for their needs.   

“We currently take many of our patients to urgent care centres (UCCs) across the North West.  Chorley will provide this service during designated hours and as such we will still take some patients to Chorley.”