EX-NHS worker Brian Hodgson said the public needed to ‘get behind’ the board of directors at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust.

The trust has been heavily criticised by two major inspection reports in recent months, which has led to former Burnley MP Peter Pike and health campaigner Russ McLean to call for resignations.

Mr Hodgson, 66, of Barn Meadow Crescent in Rishton, spent three decades working in the health service in Wales, where he headed up health and safety for Glanclwyd Hospital.

He said: “What we should be saying is let’s be positive and let’s have some ideas of how to improve things. We need the public to get behind the board.

“What I fear is the loss of the NHS and we’ll get the mess that they’ve got in America.