A SECOND council has supported a "no confidence" vote against hospital bosses.

Pendle Council members unanimously backed the no-confidence motion and called for an independent review into hospital services in East Lancashire in a named vote.

They followed Burnley Council, which backed the same motion last month after complaints of cancelled operations, longer ambulance journeys and increased reliance on temporary staff followed the controversial Meeting Patients' Needs shake-up in November.

The clinical services review moved emergency care and acute surgical wards from Burnley to Blackburn last November and will move complicated births and elective surgery from Blackburn to Burnley later this year.

East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust has also come under fire for the costly PFI deals which will see more than a billion pounds paid back over 30 years for new building at both sites which cost less than £150 million to construct.

Coun Gary Bird, who submitted the motion, said at the meeting: "It should come as no surprise that our hospitals are in a state of chaos. The trust board was well aware that this would place immense pressure on staff and resour-ces, and if not managed correctly could result in a severe lowering of patient healthcare, claims of clinical neglige-nce, and in extreme cases loss of life.

"The result of this increase of patients to a single hospital site has been catastrophic and has revealed some of the worst cases of clinical negligence and mismanagement in East Lancashire since the inception of the NHS.

"It's time we put an end to this chaos and re-instate the accident and emergency facilities where they belong, within the heart of our community, at Burnley General Hospital."