The Six-Month Clock That Hasn't Even Started
The law gives the Health Secretary six months to decide once he accepts a call-in. Four months on, he hasn't even said whether he's accepted it.
Four months ago, every party on Lancashire County Council's health scrutiny committee agreed on one thing: this decision needs a second look. Four months later, we still don't know if anyone in Whitehall is looking.
What actually happened
On 30 March 2026, the committee's cross-party members — county and district councillors from across the political spectrum — voted unanimously to ask Health Secretary Wes Streeting to call in the decision to move our children's A&E to Southport. West Lancashire MP Ashley Dalton said the same day she'd make her own call-in bid. Committee members raised the same worry we've been raising for a year: that the extra travel time to Southport could cost a child "those few minutes" that "could make a difference to life and death" [Lancashire Evening Post, 31 March 2026].
That's not a fringe complaint. It's the local authority whose job is to scrutinise NHS decisions, saying formally and unanimously that this one needs review.
The clock the government set for itself
Here's the part that should worry anyone waiting on an answer. Under the Health and Care Act 2022 call-in powers — in force since January 2024 — once the Secretary of State formally accepts a call-in and issues a direction letter, he has a hard deadline: a decision within six months of that letter. The same statutory guidance says call-in is meant for "exceptional situations" and won't be used "on a regular basis" [Mills & Reeve legal briefing, DHSC statutory guidance: Reconfiguring NHS services — ministerial intervention powers].
If ever a case met that bar, this is it: a unanimous cross-party council vote, a sitting MP's formal request, and a consultation where keeping our children's A&E at Ormskirk was the public's most popular answer — after the NHS had already named Southport its "preferred option" before asking.
But the six-month clock only starts once the Secretary of State sends that direction letter. Four months after the request landed on his desk, we don't know if he's sent one. Not called in. Not declined. Just silence.
Why the silence matters
Every week without an answer is a week closer to 2029, when the £33 million move is meant to be complete. Delay isn't neutral here — it lets the decision harden into "already happening" before anyone in government has actually reviewed it.
To be clear: nobody is asking to close Ormskirk Hospital. It stays open, seeing the vast majority of its patients as it always has. The ask is narrower and simpler than that.
What we're asking for
Health Secretary Wes Streeting must tell Lancashire County Council and West Lancashire's MP, in writing, whether he is calling in this decision. If he does, the law already gives him six months to decide. Four months of silence before that clock even starts isn't process — it's a decision by default. Our kids' A&E deserves an answer, not a shrug.
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