EAST Lancashire Hospitals has said it is working to put in place changes to its Burnley Urgent Care Centre.

But it has come under pressure from campaigners to be more transparent about what is happening and the progress so far.

Pendle Labour Party called on the hospital trust to say when the 23 recommendations made in an independent review of urgent and emergency care, published in July, would be implemented.

Bob Allen, Pendle Labour Party chairman, asked for a timeline showing how the trust would meet improvements demanded by Professor Matthew Cooke and Dr Irving Cobden.

Their report, commissioned by NHS North West, found that closing Burnley General Hospital's A&E Department in November 2007 and transferring emergency services to Blackburn was justified.

But it said the Burnley Urgent Care Centre set up to deal with less serious cases was underutilised, not taking enough ambulance cases, that publicity and communications had to be improved and that its name was adding to public confusion.

However, the trust said its director of operations Val Bertenshaw had already written to Mr Allen on October 1, sending him a copy of the action plan agreed by directors at a hospital board meeting in August.

The timetable shows that work on 18 of the recommendations was planned to start in July, when the review was first published.

And it said all but one, developing a service that can deliver timely mental health support, was now under way, with that planned to begin next month.

Former hospitals chairman Ian Woolley said more clarification was still needed on whether the centre could have its name changed back to an A&E Department and the process of a national review into 'nomenclature'.

He said: “I tried to find out from NHS North West what was going on, but you can't find out when it is likely to happen and who is leading it.

“Professor Cooke said to us there were places doing less work than what is being done at Burnley, that were called A&E.

“Why does Burnley have to wait and wait and wait before it can be called A&E again?

An NHS-wide clinical sub group has been set up to lead the implementation of the action plan, featuring four representatives from the hospitals trust.