A HEALTH chief said he would prefer East Lancashire NOT to have been given £1.4 million to shore up emergency services this winter.

Mark Youlton, chief finance officer at East Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) said the extra government cash would mean there was now ‘no excuse to fail’.

The funding is aimed at helping the Royal Blackburn Hospital cope with a predicted surge in patients over the winter months, after staff struggled to cope with the numbers last year.

Russ McLean, chairman of the Pennine Lancashire Patient Group, said the comments were ‘extraordinary’.

He said: “What a very strange thing to say.

“They should be thinking about what’s best for patients, not about excuses or what’s going to make their jobs easier.

“I suppose it’s refreshingly honest at least, which is increasingly unusual in the health economy.”

When presenting his finance report to the CCG board, Mr Youlton, who has 28 years experience in the NHS, said the extra cash would bolster community and social care, as well as the emergency ward.

But he added: “It’s also bad news this A&E money... If we get this money there’s no excuse to fail, so I’d rather we’d not have had it.”

This comment was not challenged by his colleagues on the board.

East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, which is in special measures, has struggled to meet the national four-hour A&E waiting time target in recent months.

It is one of eight trusts in the North West to receive the cash boost, and government ministers may be critical of those which are then unable to meet targets.

Mr McLean said: “We all know that winter pressures are probably going to make life very difficult at A&E.

“I’m happy there’s extra money but I think £1.4 million is a drop in the ocean and I don’t think just throwing money at it is the answer.

“They somehow need to stop people turning up at A&E unnecessarily.”