Health boss gives Chorley Hospital's A&E 'a guarantee' for the next decade

A meeting of Lancashire County Council’s health scrutiny committee heard that no existing hospital would close as a result of the now confirmed new builds for both Preston and Lancaster.

However, Jerry Hawker, senior responsible officer for the Lancashire and South Cumbria New Hospitals Programme, said that it was “too early to answer” what would happen specifically to the part-time A&E facility at Chorley once the new Royal Preston opens in the mid-2030s.

South Ribble MP Katherine Fletcher has previously revealed that Preston’s new hospital is set to be built somewhere in her constituency – moving it far closer to Chorley Hospital than the Royal’s current site in Fulwood.

“We have already committed to maintain[ing] an A&E department at Chorley until the new hospital has been built,” Mr Hawker told the committee.

“We will use the time that we have got now to review all of our services and work with the public to make sure we have got the best configuration of services that gives good access to people locally, but [is] also consistent with the workforce challenges we face in the NHS.

“The whole programme is about improving our services [and] improving outcomes,” he added, while stressing that no decisions had yet been taken about any overhaul.

It is now seven years since Chorley A&E shut its doors for nine months due to staff shortages, putting a question mark over the long-term future of the unit. It was also closed for much of 2020 following the onset of the pandemic, in order to concentrate resources on the Royal Preston.

However, a long-planned consultation into an overhaul of urgent and emergency care facilities in Central Lancashire – based on the premise that Chorley A&E was no longer viable – was scrapped in 2021 after the intervention of the then health secretary, Matt Hancock. He had demanded the inclusion of an option that would have seen the unit remain open.

At the health scrutiny meeting, Jerry Hawker also emphasised Chorley Hospital’s crucial role as a facility for elective – or pre-planned – care.

The Euxton Road site was one of over a hundred nationwide chosen to become a “surgical hub” to help plough through the build-up of procedures that occurred as result of wholesale cancellations to routine surgery early in the pandemic.

Earlier this year, it became the first such set-up in the North West to be accredited under NHS England’s ‘Getting It Right First Time’ programme. It was given the accolade as part of a pilot scheme developed to ensure that the highest standards of clinical and operational practice are maintained at the newly-created facilities.