Rob Loughenbury writes "Chorley and South Ribble Hospital is the pride of Chorley and rightly so. The care provided by doctors and nurses at Chorley Hospital is world class and those of us who seek to represent Chorley residents must fight heart and soul to protect it.
There is no threat to close Chorley Hospital. Whilst the cost of developing, researching and procuring healthcare technologies and medicines rises ever higher, the NHS budget since 2010 has risen by £7.3 billion to meet this challenge. Now Conservatives have committed to meeting the additional £8 billion funded requested by the NHS Chief Executive in an influential report last October. Our hospital is safe - don’t let Labour pretend otherwise.
In recent months I have held meetings with senior management at the Trust that runs the hospital. One of the key challenges facing the hospital is providing step down care on or near the current site, in order to open up capacity for people with acute medical needs. My view is that the development proposed for Euxton Lane must be used to provide new step-down care facilities and I hope that Chorley Council will not drop the ball in making this a reality.
The opening of an emergency GP service as part of the A&E Department will relieve pressure and help patients get the most appropriate care as soon as possible.
Some services are being outsourced at the hospital, such as the sterilisation of equipment. This is within a context of just 2% of the NHS budget being privatised since 2010. My view – and the professed view of those who run the Hospital – is that quality can be maintained and money saved by limited, strategic outsourcing. I suspect that, if asked, most people facing an operation do not care who sterilises the equipment, so long as it is done well."