The usually silent pin striped barrister, Afzal Anwar, who is standing for the Lib Dems in Pendle, is threatening to chain himself to the railings at Burnley General Hospital to protest against the transfer of the children’s ward to Blackburn.

Mild mannered Clark Kent is turning into superman.

The Ladbrokes 40-1 outsider has thrown caution to the wind.

He told the Lancashire Telegraph when the news broke last week: “I will fight the children’s ward move right to my final breath and, if extreme measures are needed, I would chain myself to the hospital in protest for the people of Pendle, who will find it hard to travel to Blackburn if they need access to the children’s wards.”

This is spirited stuff and I don’t knock it. Here is a barrister who believes in direct action. Way to go!

Nevertheless, hold on to your wig. A number of issues arise.

The East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust says this is old news. They say the plan to move the children’s ward is four years old. They claim that locating in-patient services for children at Blackburn will allow “immediate access to the best clinicians and the best treatment”. Well, they would say that wouldn’t they?

Children’s day case surgery procedures and outpatient clinics will continue to be held at Burnley General Hospital.

I can well understand the frustration of parents in Pendle and Burnley who will have to go over to Blackburn to visit their child. Who wants all that extra hassle? No-one.

But I am in no position to pontificate on whether this change is a good or bad thing so far as clinical outcomes are concerned. I must rely on others.

Doctors and nurses and other allied medical professionals have a duty to speak out, if necessary through their representative organisations, if they think changes are not in the best interests of patients. I haven’t heard any raised voices.

And the patient representative groups have got to be a lot more active.

We used to have Community Health Councils speaking up for patients. They were abolished and replaced by Patient and Public Involvement Forums which, in turn, were abolished to be replaced by the woefully ineffective Local Involvement Networks or LINKs.

Lancashire LINk, set up “to give everyone a say in how their health and social services are planned and provided”, has been silent. Par for the course, I’d say.

The NHS needs a strong forceful voice speaking out for patients. That’s missing at the moment.

And into the vacuum rush publicity seeking barristers carrying chains and padlocks.

A strong patient voice, with no political axe to grind, would also remind us of the huge investment that has gone into the NHS in East Lancashire in recent years.

In October, a new Lancashire Women and Newborn Centre, costing £32 million, will open at Burnley General. It will provide obstetric and gynaecology services and neo-natal care for women and new born babies.

Sounds pretty good to me.