Saturday 19 January 2013

A&E closures: an accident (and emergency) waiting to happen

In July last year I wrote about the closure of Burnley A&E. Politics for Novices Burnley A&E The NHS Confederation were telling us that more closures should follow, and now in the Lancaster Guardian we read that Lancaster's is threatened. We can't say we didn't see it coming. Shortly after writing the blog I received a phone call from a Mail on Sunday reporter who asked if I had experienced personal hardship because of an A&E closure. Well it won't be hard to find people like this if Lancaster's A&E closes.

Many will have experienced problems caused by closures. Nobody wants these closures. They don't want them in Burnley, Lancaster or anywhere else. I set out my reasons why I didn't want the closures back in July and they are still as valid, but the greater concern is that we are arguing against closure with people who aren't interested. Savings will be made so they think that it must be good. We are arguing with people who think it is 7 miles from the Blackburn to the Burnley hospital (see my blog from  2nd July) when it is more than 16. If their statistics are so wrong then what chance do we have with more complex information that seems to indicate that closure is the best way forward?

Change the world

 

1 comment:

  1. Closing Lancaster A & E would be sheer lunacy. Westmorland General couldn't cope, and I'm sure Preston would struggle with the extra people. Perhaps the person sitting in their snug office should give up their job instead. After all, there are far too many chiefs for the number of indians

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