The National Evidence Just Got Worse. Their Decision Didn't Change.
A new national report shows A&E waits are killing more people than ever — and they still want our kids' A&E eight miles further from home.
Four months ago, a joint committee said moving our children's A&E to Southport was the "evidence-led" choice. This month, the freshest evidence in the country landed — and it should have every parent in West Lancashire furious.
What the newest evidence actually shows
On 8 June 2026, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine published its State of Emergency Medicine in England report. It found 15,860 excess deaths in 2025 associated with long waits in English emergency departments before patients were admitted — that's 305 people a week, every week, dying because a hospital couldn't get to them in time.
The same report found 489,138 patients waited 24 hours or more in an English A&E during 2025 — an increase of roughly 150,000 patients in just three years. Nationally, the system is getting slower, not faster.
NHS England's own performance figures tell the same story. In May 2026, only 76% of A&E attendances in England were seen within four hours, against the 82% objective the NHS has set itself for 2026/27–2028/29. The gap between promise and performance is widening while our children's A&E sits in the crosshairs.
Why this matters for Ormskirk
None of this is abstract. It's the system our children will be pushed into. Southport, Alder Hey, Whiston and Aintree are not separate from this national picture — they're part of it. Adding a longer journey and more demand onto a system that is already recording record harm is not a neutral change. It's a bet against the evidence, made with our kids as the stake.
We want to be precise, because precision protects credibility: Ormskirk Hospital is not closing. The children's A&E is moving to Southport, 8 miles away. But "only 8 miles" means longer minutes in an emergency, funnelled into a national system that, by its own regulator's evidence, is already failing to see three-quarters of patients within the four-hour standard — a standard it hasn't hit in a decade.
We love the doctors and nurses who work at Ormskirk. They didn't make this decision, and they're not who we're angry at. Our fight is with the people who had 7,840 consultation responses in their hands, saw that keeping the children's A&E at Ormskirk was the public's clear preference, and pressed ahead anyway.
What we're asking for
The Health Secretary has a call-in request sitting on his desk, backed by a unanimous cross-party vote from Lancashire County Council's health scrutiny committee. We're asking him to use it. Before a single brick moves, before £33 million is spent, look at the evidence — all of it, including the evidence that's only just been published — and reverse a decision the public never wanted in the first place.
Spread the word — share this briefing: