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'Statistics prove Burnley needs a casualty unit' - Pendle MP Gordon Prentice
PENDLE MP Gordon Prentice has produced figures which he says undermine the claim Burnley General Hospital is simply too small to have its accident and emergency department reinstated.
But East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust has responded by saying the changes to the emergency care system have resulted in "vast improvements" in mortality rates and were just the first part of a major reorganisaation to improve services for local people.
Mr Prentice said in 2003 - the last year when separate figures were published for A&E at Burnley - there were 61,997 attendances.
He said: "Figures from the Department of Health for 2008 show 145,055 people attended our single A&E in East Lancashire. By contrast, 131,689 people went to A&E in the Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust, where there are two A&Es, one in Halifax and another in Huddersfield.
"In the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, there were 115,057 attendances at the two A&Es in Preston and Chorley.
"These figures speak louder than words. There is no reason why Burnley should be singled out for special treatment. It should get its own A&E back."
In reply, Mark Walkingshaw, Director of Planning and Strategic Development at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust said: "There are a number of different models of emergency care in place across the North West, and throughout the whole of the UK.
"The decision to develop the Royal Blackburn Hospital as East Lancashire Hospitals' emergency department, supported by a network of urgent care centres, was based on the best possible clinical evidence and has resulted in vast improvements death rates. Before the reconfiguration, mortality rates were above the national average, and now they are well below that average. Complication rates have also reduced dramatically.
"It must also be noted the Meeting Patients' Needs programme was designed to bring modernisation and service improvements across a wide range of specialties, resulting in a 50% reduction in cardiac death rates and increased capacity for planned procedures.
"The reconfiguration of emergency and planned care between Burnley and Blackburn is just the first part of the Meeting Patients' Needs Programme, with Burnley General Hospital's new 30m. Women's and Newborn Unit opening in a year's time as part of the second phase, and Primary Care Trusts developing their 'Care Closer to Home' programmes in the third phase."
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Saturday 18 May 2013
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