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
