BREAKING: Chorley's A&E will NOT reopen in August

Demonstration calling for Chorley Hospital's A&E unit to be reopened

As reported in the Evening Post yesterday, campaigners say that the reopening of the department will be delayed by a further six months, until January.

Today Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust confirmed that it would not be reopening in August, but refused to give a time scale of when they think the department will reopen.

The Chorley and South Ribble Hospital A&E department was closed in April due to an acute shortage of doctors.

And the trust is now saying they have still not hired enough doctors to reopen the service.

Jan Ledward, chief officer of the NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups for Chorley, South Ribble and Greater Preston, said: “Local NHS organisations and the local authority have been working closely together to do everything possible to re-open the A&E service at Chorley.

Chorley A&E ‘won’t open for another six months’

“While there has been a small improvement in staffing levels, the number and level of doctors we currently have means that we are still not in a position to support a re-opening of the A&E service at Chorley at this current time.

“This is an unfortunate situation that none of us want, and reflects the nationwide challenges in recruiting doctors and other clinicians.”

Professor Mark Pugh, consultant anaesthetist and medical director of the trust added: “Our absolute priority is patient safety and the quality of services we provide.

“It would be negligent and an unacceptable risk to patients for us to re-open a service that would not be safe due to doctor shortages.

“Instead, we will be looking at a number of options of how we may be able to enhance the current services available based on the small number of extra doctors we do have.”