On the same corridor and next door but one to me is the office of the independent MP for Wyre Forest, Dr Richard Taylor.  I frequently drop in to chat.

I like him.  Most people do.  He has the "trust me I'm a doctor" look.

His presence nearby is a constant reminder of what can happen when the future of an Accident and Emergency Department is put in doubt and the incumbent MP is on the wrong side of the argument.

Richard Taylor’s Labour predecessor, David Lock, was marked out for great things.  He was a highly regarded junior minister.  And then the row over the downgrading of Kidderminster Hospital blew up and David found himself defending a highly unpopular decision.  Instead of creating mayhem, he went along with it.

Here in East Lancashire, the blue light A&E at Burnley General Hospital was downgraded to an Urgent Care Centre in November 2007.  There is now a single A&E at Blackburn Royal Infirmary serving a catchment area of well over 500,000 people.  The decision was controversial then and has been a running sore ever since.

In the cosmos of East Lancashire, Jack Straw’s Blackburn has a strong gravitational pull.  Health services seem to be sucked into the Blackburn Royal Infirmary from elsewhere, never to reappear.  Burnley’s Children’s Ward is the latest to go although, to be fair, the Hospital Trust says this was flagged up years ago.  I am checking out the clinical rationale.

But, back to A&E.

After I rattled the bars of the cage a few months ago at PMQs, the Health Secretary, Andy Burnham, agreed there should be a review of Burnley’s Urgent Care Centre to see whether it is delivering everything that was promised in November 2007.

Lots of people don’t think so and have been campaigning ever since to get blue light A&E reinstated.  I am one of them.  (See my MP site)

Yesterday, I met Professor Matthew Cooke in London.  He is the main man with the keys to the kingdom.  As National Director of Emergency and Urgent Care he has been asked to carry out the Burnley Review together with Dr Irving Cobden, another top medic.

My friends Peter Pike and Ian Woolley – who have already given evidence - tell me they are impressed with Professor Cooke, as I am.

I want to see blue light A&E reinstated at Burnley accompanied with a protocol, publicly available, setting out the conditions which can be treated there and those which would have to go elsewhere.

The Conservative Shadow Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, has already submitted written evidence.  (I asked him to give his views to the review team.)  The contents have been covered in the local press.

He believes, like me, there is no reason why Burnley cannot have its A&E back but he says he will allow local doctors to have the final say.

Hmmm.  If he goes down this road he is handing local doctors - not just in East Lancashire but all over the country -  important new powers, with big revenue consequences.

Is this Conservative policy?

Dunno.

But I am checking it out.