Chorley and South Ribble A&E

The situation at Chorley A&E, which has been closed since 18 April is not getting any better, in fact it is getting worse as yesterday the NHS Trust at the hospital stated the Hospital would remain as an urgent care facility until April 2017. I find this unacceptable and have written the following to Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary of State for Health and also to Simon Stevens the Chief Executive Officer of NHS England.

The Rt. Hon Jeremy Hunt MP                                                 

  Secretary of State for Health,

    Department of Health,

      Richmond House,

        79 Whitehall,

          London SW1A 2NS                                                                                3 August 2016

Re. Closure of Chorley and South Ribble Hospital Accident and Emergency Department

Dear Mr Hunt,

You may be aware that Chorley and South Ribble Hospital Accident and Emergency Department was closed on 18 April this year and downgraded to an urgent care centre available from 8am to 8pm daily. The reason for the closure was due to a shortage of middle grade doctors and the inability, of the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, to staff the rotas resulting in an unacceptable risk to patient safety.

In April the people of Chorley and South Ribble were assured the measures were temporary and that the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust would do everything possible to secure the staff needed to reinstate the emergency department service at the hospital.

The local System Resilience Group has been reviewing the staffing position weekly and have today, 3 August, decided that it has no option but to maintain the current urgent care service and this situation will be reviewed again in April 2017, meaning there will continue to be no A&E service at the hospital for at least another eight months.

It was stated, in April, by Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust that their short term solution was to continue efforts to fill posts substantively and to attract agency doctors to fill the gaps, this has not happened in the four months since April despite the trust breaching any agency rate cap for emergency department doctors.

We are astounded and hugely disappointed by the news today, that the A&E is likely to remain closed until no earlier than April 2017, and cannot accept that more isn’t being done to reinstate the service.

The temporary closure of the Chorley and South Ribble Hospital A&E is becoming long term rather than temporary and we are gravely concerned over the current situation, the impact this is having on people who would need to use the A&E service and the resultant increase in demand at neighbouring Hospitals providing an A&E service.

Our request is that you urgently intervene in the situation and provide help and direction to the board of Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, in their efforts to recruit the doctors required to re-open the A&E department at Chorley and South Ribble Hospital, as they are clearly struggling to attract the talent needed to run their hospital. We ask that you do this so that the A&E department at Chorley Hospital is re-opened, reinstating the valuable service to all those needing it.

Yours sincerely

Paul Leadbetter

Leader Conservative Group

Chorley Borough Council