Like so many people in East Lancashire, I want Burnley General to get its A&E Department back. 

It went to Blackburn, along with the kitchen sink, in November 2007.

Its loss has been a running sore for years.

Burnley’s replacement Urgent Care Centre is uncharitably described as a “first aid post” by the town’s vacuous Lib Dem MP, Gordon Birtwistle who has vowed time and time again to get A&E reinstated.

For his part, Pendle’s Conservative MP, Andrew Stephenson, who made such a song and dance about the issue before the general election, seldom says much about it these days, no doubt hoping it will just fade away.

Almost five months ago, Health Minister, Simon Burns, told Stephenson that a nomenclature review of A&E and Urgent Care would be piloted in East Lancashire, Manchester and Salisbury and published at the end of the year alongside the NHS Operating Framework.

Burns repeated this assurance on 14 September 2010 when he told MPs:

When somebody walks through the doors of an A and E department, a walk-in centre or an emergency care centre, what exactly should they expect? What ailments or injuries are most appropriate for each setting? It is not only an issue of general confusion; it is also a matter of safety. If someone presents at a place describing itself as an accident and emergency department, but it does not have the same facilities as most A and Es, that patient could face delay and unnecessary risk.

As part of the quality, innovation, productivity and prevention programme, work on standardising urgent and emergency care is under way. Its aim is to clarify what services can be expected in various facilities. By using criteria based on clinical evidence, it should be possible to standardise those terms across the country. That is currently being done in three pilot areas: East Lancashire, Manchester and Salisbury. The conclusions should be published by the end of the year, alongside the operating framework. However, it will not state which types of service should be provided in particular areas. That decision will be made locally.

So, where is it?

Attachments:

A & E001.pdf

[Burns letter]

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