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March 2nd, 2010 | 
Author:
 Queensgate Councillor Darren Reynolds |
Burnley’s councillor responsible for health service scrutiny will tonight bluntly tell NHS officials they must fully re-open Burnley’s Accident and Emergency unit.
Coun Darren Reynolds, who chairs Burnley’s Liberal Democrat party and sits on Lancashire’s health scrutiny committee, will deliver a devastating critique of a review of Burnley’s Urgent Care Centre, and insist that re-opening Burnley’s A&E is the only solution to the failures in Blackburn.
The review is taking place after Pendle’s Gordon Prentice MP secured the intervention of the Prime Minister and met with the Secretary of State for Health. It is being conducted over a two-day period this week. But the officials conducting the review have been instructed not to consider re-opening Burnley’s A&E, leading some to claim that the Labour-inspired review is a whitewash before it has started.
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Coun Reynolds will say:
“Burnley people will never accept that routinely travelling to Blackburn for emergency treatment is better than receiving treatment in their own hospital.
“This review is looking at all the wrong things and is based on false information and untruths.
“The review makes a starting assumption that Burnley people asked to have their hospital downgraded when they chose between the options put out for consultation. There were only two options to choose from, and both of them involved closing Burnley’s A&E to emergencies. I’m sorry, but people are not that stupid.
“It is also a starting assumption that the changes had nothing to do with money. This is despite the fact that I’ve been given a copy of the minutes of the meeting which decided to press ahead with downgrading Burnley’s hospital. In them, it is declared that, ‘The option of Burnley General focussing on emergency care was considered but the amount of investment required to redesign the Burnley site to make it viable as the emergency site is unaffordable.’
“No other explanation for the closure to emergencies is given.
“Finally, it is a starting assumption that outcomes have not worsened for patients as a result of the changes. But no proof is offered. There is no comparison with other hospitals. The only group of patients that ever get a mention are cardiac patients, who are generally doing better anyway across the country thanks to improvements in medical technology. There is nothing to link this narrow set of improvements to the reconfiguration, and there are wholesale gaps in the claims for all other groups of patients.
“The review is set up only to consider Burnley’s Urgent Care Centre as it stands. They have not been told to look at the problems in Blackburn but they have been told not to consider re-opening Burnley’s A&E. Given that this is the only solution to the problem, we are at stalemate. The system is broken.”
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A Council is threatening to force a family with mobility difficulties to knock down the porch they built to store their mobility scooter and wheelchair because it is too close to the street.
But in a first use of new powers, Lib Dem councillors are seeking to intervene to get planning permission granted instead.
In an email to Queensgate ward Coun Darren Reynolds, a planning officer says that the porch is “not acceptable” and that it is a decision for council officers, not councillors.
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Another planning officer has told Coun Reynolds that planning permission is required for any development within two metres of the highway. She said that the porch was too big, and should have been built out of stone instead of PVC.
Mr Frank Davies, who lives with his wife, son and daughter, said of his son, “William hasn’t been able to walk since he caught TB and meningitis at the age of two. We’re not supposed to store the electric scooter in the house because of the fire risk, and anyway there just isn’t room for all the equipment.
“I did ask whether I needed planning permission before the porch was built and I was told that I didn’t. I also asked all my neighbours and they were all happy with the idea.
“But now someone has complained and the Council are saying that I shouldn’t have built it. I don’t know what we’re going to do. We spent a lot of money on the porch. It was well-made by a local firm and I thought I was doing the right thing.”
Coun Reynolds said, “I can’t understand why anyone would have a problem with this porch. It’s not blocking anyone’s window, it looks pretty enough, it’s built entirely on Mr Davies’ property in his small front yard. This is the only place it could go.
“But this is about more people than the Davies family. Accross Burnley, many people with mobility difficulties live in homes of a similar size. Often scooters or wheelchairs are kept in a corridor behind the front door because getting them any further into the house can be difficult. This creates a risk of minor injuries and falls when someone trips over them.
“Burnley Council has changed in recent years and is now doing a much better job at using common sense and listening to the town’s residents. The porch is helping this family with their mobility. Planning permission should be granted and I hope there will be a chance to change the officers’ minds.”
Coun Reynolds is hoping to be the first councillor in Burnley to use new powers to force such decisions out of the hands of officers and give them to a committee of councillors. This would allow the public to speak about the planning application at an open meeting in the Town Hall. |
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Burnley Council tonight called on both the government and the local Hospitals Trust to set up an independent expert review of how emergency hospital care is provided in East Lancashire.
The call comes after Pendle MP Gordon Prentice secured the intervention of the Prime Minister in addressing problems with East Lancashire’s inadequate Emergency Department at the Royal Blackburn Hospital.
At a full meeting of the Council, councillors of all four political parties voted unanimously to support a motion put forward by health scrutiny member Coun Darren Reynolds asking both the Trust and the Secretary of State to have outside experts give a second opinion on whether Burnley should have its own Accident and Emergency department.
Councillors wanted to know why smaller pairs of towns elsewhere in Lancashire and Yorkshire had independent units that are able to keep to their budgets, meet government targets and win national recognition for providing the best treatment for patients. Councillors poured scorn on suggestions that Blackburn was big enough to provide a service for the whole of East Lancashire, saying that the evidence time and again proved otherwise.
Coun Darren Reynolds said, “The hospitals bosses have said publicly that they respect the democratic process. I believe it is now for them to prove that by accepting the unanimous request of Burnley Council and setting up the review we have been demanding since the chaos in Blackburn began, two years ago.
“It may prove that only extra money will permit Burnley to have its own facilities. If so, then the government needs to respond. Burnley people and their local representatives will always prioritise public health over illegal foreign wars, useless ID cards and disastrous defence procurement projects. This money must be spent instead on helping people to stay fit and healthy, and that is what we expect our government to do.”
Posted in Latest News, Local News, Local News, News | 
Tags: a&e, birtwistle, election, gordon, health, hospital, lib dems, nhs, petition, winning, won | 
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First they closed the A&E to emergencies
Now they are closing the Childrens ward at Burnley General
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Now they are closing the Childrens ward at Burnley General
Join the campaign today
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