Chorley A&E: Call to postpone 'misguided' reopening

Staff from Chorley and South Ribble A&E moved to the Royal Preston in March to work in Covid-19 care

Campaigners calling for a 24-hour A&E to be reinstated at a hospital have said reopening on part-time hours should have been postponed after senior medics called the plan "dangerous".

The trust which runs Chorley and South Ribble Hospital said the reopened unit, which closed in March due to Covid-19, would be "under constant review".

In a letter on Friday, 17 consultants said reopening was "misguided".

A campaign group said to "reinstate an unsafe service" would risk lives.

The unit was found not to be "clinically viable" in a 2019 report and spent much of 2016 closed because of a shortage of senior staff.

It was due to reopen in September, but was delayed after only half of the required staff could be found.

'Mitigate the risks'

In the letter to the clinical director of the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which was seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) on Friday, the medics said the timing of reopening was "almost as poor as it could be" due to the local "surge of Covid-19 cases".

They said a number of the senior doctors in the unit were "taking up their first role in the UK" and a delayed reopening "would allow them to have a period of supported experience at the Royal Preston Hospital before stepping up".

Organisers of the Chorley and South Ribble Hospital Campaign told LDRS they were concerned reopening in a compromised way could jeopardise their goal of restoring a 24-hour service.

In a statement, they said to "reinstate an unsafe service... would put lives at unnecessary risk, not aid in protecting them".

The trust's chief executive Karen Partington said it had worked to "mitigate the risks of running a reduced hours, adults-only emergency department".

"We will continue to meet regularly with our consultants and the situation will remain under constant review," she added.