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The Sick Kids Don't Disappear. They Just End Up Somewhere Else.

26 July 2026 · Save Ormskirk Children's A&E campaign

Moving our children's A&E to Southport doesn't remove the pressure on the system — it just pushes it onto GPs, NHS 111 and ambulance crews who are already stretched.

A children's A&E doesn't vanish into thin air when it moves eight miles down the road. The worried parents and frightened kids who used to walk through Ormskirk's doors don't disappear either — they end up somewhere else. Right now, "somewhere else" increasingly means a GP surgery that's already full, a 111 queue, or the back of an ambulance.

The GP surgery is already stretched

As of May 2026, there were 2,192 patients for every full-time GP in England — well above what's considered safe or sustainable. Over half of practices (55%) say the pressure is already affecting patient care, 42% have had to cut back face-to-face appointments, and 74% report rising workload. When a parent can't get a same-day appointment for a feverish, frightened child, they go wherever the door is still open. Soon, for our kids, that door will be eight miles further away.

111 and 999 pick up what falls through the gaps

NHS 111 answered 360,286 calls in the single week ending 2 February 2026 — almost 5,000 more than the same week the year before. It has missed its own target of answering 95% of calls within 60 seconds for two and a half years running. Every parent who can't get through to a GP, or isn't sure whether their child's illness counts as an emergency, ends up on that line instead — or dialling 999.

Ambulance crews are already at their limit

Category 2 ambulance responses across the North West averaged 31 minutes and 3 seconds this winter — an improvement on last year, but still slower than the 30-minute average NHS England set as its target for 2025/26 (with an ambition of 25 minutes by March 2027). Add an eight-mile detour past a hospital that used to take our children in, and it isn't hard to work out where those extra minutes come from.

None of this is the fault of the GPs, call handlers and paramedics doing their best with what they've got — our fight is with those who ignored the consultation, not with NHS staff. But every time a service is downgraded, the demand it used to absorb doesn't vanish. It lands on somebody else's desk, phone line, or ambulance shift.

What we're asking for: the Health Secretary must call in the 13 March 2026 decision to move Ormskirk's children's A&E to Southport before any work begins — and look properly at what it will do to GPs, NHS 111 and the ambulance crews already stretched thin across West Lancashire.

Sources: BMA, "Pressures in general practice" data analysis (accessed July 2026) — 2,192 patients per full-time-equivalent GP as of May 2026; 55% of practices report negative effects on patient care, 42% reduced face-to-face appointments, 74% report rising workload.,NHS England / Nuffield Trust, "Winter Insight: NHS 111" — 360,286 calls answered in the week ending 2 February 2026, versus 355,452 in the equivalent week a year earlier; NHS 111 has missed its 95%-within-60-seconds target for two and a half years.,NHS England North West, "NHS in the North West reports improved winter – but 'more to do'" (19 March 2026) — average Category 2 ambulance response time of 31 minutes 3 seconds in winter 2026, against a 30-minute national average target for 2025/26 and a 25-minute ambition for March 2027.

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