HOSPITAL Trusts in Lancashire were among the worst-performing in the country over the festive period for ambulance delays, new figures reveal.

Data from NHS England shows Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust was the second worst followed by East Lancashire Hospitals Trust (ELHT), which was third poorest.

The figures for the last week of 2017, December 25 to December 31, relate to patients forced to wait in ambulances in hospital car parks, or with paramedics in corridors,

Of 724 ambulance arrivals at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, 53.9 percent were delayed over 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, 43.9 percent of the 890 ambulances that arrived at ELHT were delayed by over half an hour.

Campaigners have called the figures ‘horrendous’ and called for the A&E at Chorley to become full-time and for the former A&E at Burnley General Teaching Hospital to reopen ten years after it shut.

Former Burnley MP Gordon Birtwistle, who led the campaign against the closure of the A&E at Burnley, said: “It’s bad enough that the people of Burnley have to travel to Blackburn A&E.

“But then to be waiting in the back of an ambulance when they get there is horrendous.”

Susan Holdsworth, a member of the Protect Chorley & South Ribble District Hospital from Cuts and Privatisation, said: “These figures are awful.

“We need the A&E to reopen full-time at Chorley and need more funding for doctors and nurses to ensure this can happen.”

Dr Damian Riley, executive medical director at ELHT, said that due to the number of extremely poorly patients its hospitals receive during the winter, ambulance attendances ‘increase significantly’.

He said: “They average 135 per day in December compared to 120 in August, for example.”

“As a result, handover times are on average eight to 10 minutes longer than during the summer.”

Karen Partington, chairman of the central Lancashire A&E delivery board and chief executive of Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, said it remained the case that it ‘did not have enough doctors’ to safely staff a 24-hour emergency department at Chorley.

She added: “We apologise to every patient who has experienced delays.”

“We trust that everyone understands that we must prioritise those who need emergency treatment for serious and life and limb threatening conditions.”