Essex Kept Its A&E. Wales Kept Its A&E. Here's What It Took.
Two health boards elsewhere in the UK reversed A&E downgrade decisions after community campaigns — one after a 30,000-signature petition, one after a unanimous board vote. Ours has 7,840 responses and no reversal yet.
We're often asked whether campaigns like ours actually change anything. Twice now, in two different parts of the country, the answer has been yes.
Essex: 30,000 signatures, one reversal
In November 2016, NHS officials in Essex proposed downgrading the A&E at Broomfield Hospital, which would have forced emergency patients to travel further to be seen. A local campaigner started a petition and a Facebook page. Over the following months that turned into petition stalls, a march through Chelmsford that drew hundreds of people, public meetings and a hustings with local candidates ([38 Degrees](https://home.38degrees.org.uk/2017/07/24/victory-broomfields-ae-essex-saved/)).
By July 2017, the NHS reversed the decision. The trust's own chief executive, Claire Panniker, said the reversal was down to the "significant concerns" raised by around 30,000 campaign supporters ([38 Degrees](https://home.38degrees.org.uk/2017/07/24/victory-broomfields-ae-essex-saved/)).
Wales: a unanimous vote to abandon the downgrade
At the Royal Glamorgan Hospital in Llantrisant, plans to downgrade the 24-hour A&E to a minor injuries unit, or cut its hours, faced a sustained campaign involving hospital staff, unions and local residents, including demonstrations by healthcare and ambulance workers who set out the risks in plain terms ([South Wales Echo, via PressReader](https://www.pressreader.com/uk/south-wales-echo/20200630/281663962281580)).
Cwm Taf Morgannwg Health Board voted unanimously to abandon the downgrade. Progress recruiting medical staff helped make the case, but it was the sustained public pressure that kept the department on the table for a decision at all.
What both had in common
Neither of these reversals happened because the NHS changed its mind on its own. In both cases, a health board that had already reached a preferred option changed course only after sustained, visible pressure from the people who'd actually have to live with the result — patients, staff and local residents making the same argument, again and again, in public.
That's exactly the position we're in. Our 13-week consultation drew 7,840+ responses, and keeping the children's A&E at Ormskirk was the most popular option — even though NHS Lancashire & South Cumbria and NHS Cheshire & Merseyside ICBs had already named Southport their preferred option before the consultation opened. A joint committee approved the £33 million move to Southport on 13 March 2026 anyway. To be precise: Ormskirk Hospital is not closing. Its children's A&E is moving 8 miles away, unless the decision is called in first.
Essex needed 30,000 signatures. Wales needed a health board that was willing to listen to its own staff. We already have 7,840 people on record saying they wanted to keep this A&E where it is. We love the doctors and nurses who keep it running today — our fight is with the process that asked the question and then didn't like the answer.
What we're asking for
The Health Secretary must call in this decision before any work begins, just as boards elsewhere chose to listen and reverse course. It has happened before. It can happen here.
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