The new NHS numbers are in — and they should worry every parent
England's latest A&E figures show a system already running beyond its limits — the worst possible moment to push our children's emergency care 8 miles further away.
Every month, the NHS publishes its A&E scorecard. The latest one landed this week. Read it and ask yourself: is this really the moment to move our children's A&E?
What the new figures show
In May 2026, just 75.7% of A&E patients in England were admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours — down from 76.9% the month before, and short of even the NHS's own reduced 78% ambition. The original standard says 95% of patients should be seen within four hours. It hasn't been met nationally since 2015.
It gets worse. More than 50,000 patients waited over 12 hours on a trolley after a decision to admit them in May — up 17% on the same month last year, and roughly 121 times the level seen in May 2019, before the pandemic.
These are national figures, not Southport's alone. But that's exactly the point: the whole emergency care system is running hot — in May, traditionally one of the quieter months.
Now add our children to that queue
The plan approved on 13 March would move Ormskirk's children's A&E to Southport, 8 miles away, at a cost of £33 million. Every one of our children would join the queue in a system that is already going backwards on its own targets.
And remember: Ormskirk is 10–20 minutes closer than Southport to the specialist centres at Alder Hey, Whiston and Aintree. When A&Es are this stretched, those minutes are not a detail. They're the margin.
They were told. They went ahead anyway.
7,840 of us responded to last year's consultation. Keeping the children's A&E at Ormskirk was the most popular option — yet the NHS had named Southport as its "preferred option" before the consultation even opened. In late March, Lancashire County Council's health scrutiny committee voted unanimously — every party — to ask the Health Secretary to call the decision in. That request is still sitting unanswered.
We love the doctors and nurses at Ormskirk and Southport. They're doing heroic work inside these numbers. Our fight is with the decision-makers who looked at a system under this much strain and decided the answer was to move our children's emergency care further away.
What we're asking for
The Health Secretary must formally call in this decision before any work begins. The newest NHS figures don't make the case for this move — they make it reckless. Sign the petition. Share this briefing. Make them look at the numbers.
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