Lancashire MP pledging to help local trust over hospital A&E wait times
There is a current 15-hour plus backlog
A local MP says they will work closely with a Lancashire hospital trust to try and tackle long waiting lists at A&E.
East Lancashire Health Trust (ELHT) bosses are trying to deal with 15-plus hour waiting times at the Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital
Independent Adnan Hussain has been in touch with ELHT chief executive Martin Hodgson and plans to visit the department to see for himself the scale of the problem which on Tuesday led to the issuing of a “red alert”.
He also intends to write to health and social care secretary Wes Streeting to call for extra government support for the hospital.
Mr Hussain’s intervention follows the warning the trust issued on Tuesday, in which it said that the wait time at the Royal Blackburn Hospital’s (RBH) A&E department rose to more than 15 hours with in excess of 125 people in the queue for assessment.
ELHT urged people to only come to the department in life or limb-threatening situations and to use the 111 service to be advised on the best treatment option – such as seeing their GP, visiting a pharmacist, or heading to nearby minor injuries units.
Mr Hussain said: “It has been brought to my attention that RBH has issued a red alert notice, with reports of patients having to wait up to 15 hours at the hospital’s accident and emergency unit.
“At the time of writing this statement the number of patients in the department is 138.
“The number of patients being presented at the hospital appear to be higher than the hospital dealt with even during the pandemic.
Sharon Gilligan, ELHT’s chief operating officer, said: “I want to start by saying how sorry we are to everyone who finds themselves or their family waiting for long periods of time in our urgent or emergency care treatment centres.
“The A&E at Royal Blackburn is one of the busiest emergency departments in the country.
“The team could not be doing any more to support patients and their families in an extremely pressured and challenged environment – and I want to thank them for their ongoing hard work and resilience.
“Please help us by only attending urgent or emergency centres if you have medical needs that are life-threatening.”