I would like to say a big thank you to Dr Iain Ashworth for his attack on East Lancs Hospital Services.

I do hope more GPs, ambulance drivers, paramedics, nurses etc join the debate on the hospital chaos.

Dr Ashworth stated people will be dying on the motorway to hospital. The centre page in the LT some weeks ago, praising the Royal Blackburn Hospital, said there had been no patients that had arrived DOA.

I remember a nine-year-old from Burnley who was pronounced dead on arrival, reported on November 30, 2007, thirty days after the closure of Burnley’s A&E department.

Some months ago I visited a friend in the Royal Blackburn. She had just been told she would not be going home for a couple of days.

Within 30 minutes or so, a sister rushed in the ward and said one lady was being moved to another ward, and everyone else had to get dressed and go home.

Apparently the beds were urgently needed.

As there were no porters available we had to take turns pushing the wheelchairs to the hospital exit. We are all 70 years-plus.

Frank Crompton, Lightbown Street, Darwen