DESPITE the fact that all East Lancashire hospitals got a good showing in the recent Government "league tables" there remain lingering doubts about the quality of care in the NHS.

The Government is constantly telling us how well its reforms are working, while Labour snipes that the service is cruelly underfunded.

What is really worrying is when the patients themselves start to complain about their treatment.

As we reveal today, 15 per cent of patients using Queen's Park Hospital and Blackburn Royal Infirmary felt they were not well enough to go home.

A relative of an 83-year-old man was worried that he was sent home on the same day as his surgery. Another patient on the gynaecological ward said she got the impression that the staff wanted her to leave as soon as possible.

One possibility for this impression is the severe lack in Blackburn of convalescent beds where patients can go to recover after surgery.

Another, according to Health Council chief officer Nigel Robinson, is that day surgery is not always appropriate.

Of course, when we go into hospital we put our trust in the skill and care of the medical staff. Presumably, they know when it is safe for us to return home.

But that trust must be based on the knowledge that care for patients is based solely on need and not on a "quota" for dealing with as many patients as possible in as short a time as possible - whatever effect that has on a hospital's ranking in the league tables.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.