Busiest Summer Ever. That's Where They Want to Send Our Kids.
The NHS just logged its busiest summer on record — and Southport, Alder Hey, Whiston and Aintree are already buckling under it.
This summer the NHS saw more people through A&E than ever before. Southport, Alder Hey, Whiston and Aintree — the hospitals lined up to take our children once Ormskirk's children's A&E moves eight miles away — took the brunt of it.
The busiest summer on record
Between June and August 2026, A&E departments across England recorded 7,268,445 attendances — more than 240,000 higher than the same months in 2025, according to NHS England's own performance figures published this month. Ambulance crews were called out 2,455,833 times, over 130,000 more call-outs than the summer before.
NHS England says a record 5,462,182 people were treated, admitted or discharged within four hours. Set against the number who actually came through the door, that works out to only around 75% seen within target — nowhere near the 95% standard the NHS is meant to hit.
The hospitals our kids would be sent to
This isn't a quiet corner of the system. The Royal College of Emergency Medicine's own tracking for July 2026 found more than 150,000 patients waited over 12 hours in major A&E departments nationally, and more than 47,000 spent over 12 hours stuck on a trolley. On an average day, roughly 2,300 patients were treated in a corridor because there was no cubicle free, and more than 14,000 people a day who were medically fit to leave hospital couldn't be discharged — a new record.
As RCEM Vice President Dr Russell Duncan put it: "A&E congestion is often caused by poor flow through the hospital and social care system resulting in shortages of available inpatient beds, rather than an increase in the number of people arriving at the front door."
That is the system Southport, Alder Hey, Whiston and Aintree are already part of. These are the hospitals our children would depend on if Ormskirk's children's A&E — currently open 8am to midnight — moves eight miles further away, adding pressure to departments that are already missing their own targets.
We love the staff. We don't trust the plan.
None of this is a criticism of the doctors, nurses and paramedics holding this system together — we see what they're up against every single day. Our fight is with the decision-makers who approved a £33 million move to Southport in March, after 7,840+ of us took part in a consultation that named keeping the children's A&E at Ormskirk the most popular option — an option ruled out before we were even asked.
What we're asking for
The Health Secretary must formally call in this decision before a single brick is laid. Lancashire County Council's cross-party health scrutiny committee has already asked for exactly that, and our MP has backed the call. Minutes matter in a children's emergency — and right now, the hospitals our kids would be sent to instead of Ormskirk are already running red hot.
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