Burnley urgent care centre to be upgraded (From This Is Lancashire)

Burnley urgent care centre to be upgraded

9:00am Thursday 8th July 2010 in News By Neil Docking, Reporter

SERVICES RETURN: Burnley’s old A&E is being upgraded

BURNLEY Urgent Care Centre is to be upgraded to treat more emergency patients following an independent review – but the most serious cases will still go to Blackburn.

The review found that closing Burnley General Hospital’s A&E department in November 2007 and moving emergency services to Blackburn was justified.

But it said that the Urgent Care Centre (UCC) set up to deal with less serious cases was under used and not taking enough ambulance cases.

Campaigners hailed the findings as a ‘victory for common sense’ and called for the centre to be renamed as an A&E department.

The review was led by Professor Matthew Cooke, the national director for emergency and urgent care, and Dr Irving Cobden, medical director at Cumbria Primary Care Trust.

It suggested the name could be changed because other A&E departments provide similar or less services than Burnley.

The pair interviewed patient representatives, councillors, MPs, staff, managers and union members across the hospital trust, primary care trusts and ambulance service and studied performance data as part of the review.

The report said there was no evidence that the present system was unsafe and in fact some areas were more clinically effective.

But it added: “It was apparent that the Burnley UCC has the potential to see many cases that are currently going to Blackburn and other more specialised units.

“We were concerned that some people may not have recognised the full potential of the Burnley UCC to provide a local service for dealing with a variety of emergencies not requiring more specialised care.”

It said there was inconsistency in the services available at the centre, which could reduce safety and lead to poor levels of care, and that the centre was only staffed by junior doctors out of office hours.

And the pair discovered that there were very few cases, only five or six a day, taken to the centre by ambulance, despite plans put in place to allow more cases.

The report said: “There is a system of telephoning the duty A&E consultant for discussion regarding appropriate location but we understand this is rarely used.

“On occasions the crews were vigorously challenged on why they had come to Burnley, this tended to mean crews choose Blackburn where all cases are accepted.”

Their review made 23 recommendations, which East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust and the strategic health authority NHS North West have accepted.

Jane Cummings, director of performance, quality and nursing at NHS North West, said an action plan would now be drawn up over the coming weeks to detail how the recommendations would be implemented.

She said Burnley would not become a full A&E as before, but some minor trauma and orthopaedic work could be treated in Burnley, along with some elderly patients and some ambulance patients.

Burnley MP Gordon Birtwistle said the review was a “major coup” but that he would continue to fight for a full A&E in Burnley.

He said: “Two years’ hard graft by myself and Lib Dem colleagues, a 27,000 name petition plus pressure put on the trust via the council and now in parliament has paid off. I think it’s a victory for the people of Burnley.

“The trust never accepted there was a problem at all, but now they have and they will have to act.”

Former hospitals trust chairman Ian Woolley, who contributed to the review alongside ex-Burnley MP Peter Pike, described the report as a “victory for common sense”.

He said its recommendations were “the best we could have hoped for” as “high tech facilities cannot be afforded at both ends of the patch”.

Former Pendle MP Gordon Prentice, who asked Gordon Brown for the review, said: "We're better off now than we were before but the ball is very firmly in the court of the secretary of state Andrew Lansley and the two new MPs for Burnley and Pendle.”

East Lancashire Hospitals released a joint statement with the primary care trust NHS East Lancashire.

A spokesman said: “We fully accept their recommendations and will work enthusiastically to implement them.”

North West Ambulance Service deputy chief executive, Bob Williams, said it would look at the recommendations and work closely with NHS East Lancashire and East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust to progress.

Recommendations

Among the 23 recommendations the report made were:

l Publicity campaigns and creating a directory of services so the public and staff know what services are on offer at the Urgent Care Centre.

l Establishing a formal emergency care network of clinicians and managers to oversee developments.

l Reviewing acute provision for the elderly and considering establishing a community-run assessment service linked to an intermediate care unit.

l That the ambulance service and hospital trust develop systems to increase the number of cases taken to Burnley.

l 24-hour primary care provision at Burnley is fully integrated with the Urgent Care Centre.

l Patients needing an orthopaedic opinion on fractures are given X-Rays at Burnley rather than being sent to Blackburn.

l That consultant cover is always available at the centre when needed and overnight staffing is reviewed.

l That the plans for a children’s assessment unit during the daytime at Burnley but overnight children’s wards in Blackburn are publicly clarified as soon as possible.

l That quicker mental health support is provided.

Full report

Click on the link below to read the full 12-page report (PDF format).

Review of Burnley Urgent Care Centre 2010.pdf