THE controversial review of services at Burnley General Hospital will launch today - but you will have no choice to stop 40 per cent of beds getting the axe.

A document will be put forward in which two options are likely to get the nod and go on to public consultation.

One option is to have all intensive care beds at Blackburn Queen's Park Hospital, meaning most emergency patients from East Lancashire would be seen there.

The other would be to split beds between the two hospitals.

But both options involve swingeing beds cuts.

The least severe would be 254 bed losses out of 638, a drop of 40 per cent. The other option - which is backed by hospital bosses - will see 360 beds go, a massive 56 per cent less.

But nine of the 12 departments affected have the exact same cuts under both options.

Among those guaranteed for the chop are 160 out of 245 medical beds, all 27 paediatric beds, all 17 urology beds and all six coronary care beds.

The 16-week public consultation will therefore only be able to influence bed changes in gynaecology and whether Burnley or Blackburn has all obstetric and the neo-natal intensive care beds.

A committee of NHS managers will meet at 2pm today at Accrington Town Hall to finalise the details of the consultation.

It will consist of the chief executive, chairman and GP lead from all of East Lancashire's three primary care trusts, which pay for hospital services. It will also include two directors of finance and one director of public health.

The committee chairman, David Peat, chief executive of Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale PCT, said: "We need to deliver healthcare based on sound clinical evidence and do more to promote good health in the community, while ensuring that the services we provide are affordable and sustainable for years to come.

"The Review provided us with an unrivalled opportunity to come up with ways in which to do just that, while making certain they are fit for the 21st century which is what patients want and rightly expect."

The Trust is then aiming to deliver an eight-page summary to as many homes as possible in Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale and visit towns with a roadshow bus to hear people's views on the proposals.

It is not known whether the document will contain the bed numbers.