999 AMBULANCES are set to return to Burnley General Hospital.

The move is aimed at easing the pressure on East Lancashire’s A&E unit at the Royal Blackburn Hospital which is struggling to cope with the amount of patients.

Since Burnley’s A&E was axed 13 months ago, paramedics have taken patients to the Royal Blackburn, not matter how serious their condition.

New protocols being finalised this week mean paramedics who think a patient is not ill enough to need the emergency department can speak to a senior doctor on the telephone for clearance to take them to Burnley’s urgent care department.

Campaigners who have been fighting for the return of A&E to Burnley said the ‘superb news’ was ‘just the start’.

Coun Darren Reynolds, who was part of the team which compiled the ‘It’s Our NHS’ dossier of complaints made against the hospitals trust, said health bosses were making the right decision.

He said: “We hope, eventually, that the really big mistakes will be corrected too, and the full emergency department will be restored to Burnley.”

Gordon Birtwistle, leader of Burnley Council, said: “It’s absolutely superb news.

“I have been campaigning for 12 months and we have over 6,000 names on a petition, of which 2,500 have been delivered to the hospital and there is another 3,200 to deliver.

“The pressure of the people has obviously paid off.

“It is only the start, but hopefully, we will get the whole lot back.”

Liberal Democrat Barnoldswick councillor David Whipp, sounded a note of caution over the plans, saying they could make things worse.

He said: “We have all heard stories of people being at Burnley, only to be told they need an operation and have to go to Blackburn, and find themselves waiting hours in agony for an ambulance, and this could mean the potential for that to happen to even more people.

“It is a step in the right direction, but we have got a lot further to go. We are still demanding a full accident and emergency service back in Burnley.”

A&E at the Royal Blackburn has been struggling to cope with unprecendented numbers of patients. Last month it was so busy one night it had to close for three hours, forcing ambulances to take new arrivals up to 28 miles away.

These problems have caused the trust to fail to reach its target of seeing 98 per cent of A&E cases within four hours. It is only hitting 91 per cent.

But, while Blackburn is swamped, Burnley’s urgent care centre has been underused, with people seemingly reluctant to go to a hospital where there is no A&E.

Cath Galaska, director of commissioning at NHS East Lancashire, the main funding provider for East Lancashire’s hospitals, told the trust board: “The present situation has doubled ambulance activity at the Royal Blackburn Hospital, and 11,000 ambulances are now arriving there every three months.

“Real pressure exists there.”

Paramedics were given discretionary powers divert to Burnley at the beginning of this year, but had been reluctant without authorisation from senior clinicians.

A spokesman for the North West Ambulance Service said no final agreement had been reached but that patient care would be at the forefront of whatever was agreed.

Geraint Jones, medical director for the hospitals trust, said whatever was decided would see patients treated ‘at the most appropriate place’.