Mentally unwell STILL waiting days for treatment at The Vic

PLUS: Why fracking entering the national politics debate is not good for Lancashire

Hello and welcome to The Blackpool Lead.

Blackpool Victoria Hospital has been in the national spotlight of late, with the tabloids catching wind of the fact that there have been a number of high-profile incidents reach key stages over the last month or so.

One of those is the suicide of Jamie Pearson - a young man whose 22-hour wait for treatment meant that promises of improvement were made.

But things still have a long way to go before they get better, as data obtained by The Blackpool Lead shows.

And with the topic of fracking fizzing back into the national spotlight over the last seven days, I’ve set out why I don’t think that’s a good thing for the Fylde.

Week-long wait for mental health treatment at Blackpool Victoria Hospital

Blackpool Victoria Hospital. Credit: Alamy

By Michael Holmes

Mentally unwell patients continue to languish for days in Blackpool Victoria Hospital’s A&E department - even after the suicide of Jamie Pearson, whose 22-hour wait there sparked promises of reform.

Bosses at the under-fire hospital - told by a national newspaper this week that it “shames Britain” - recently said steps had been taken to improve the situation after an inquest into Mr Pearson’s death ruled it was contributed to by neglect.

But vulnerable residents are still waiting, according to figures obtained under freedom of information laws, with one mental health patient left for almost a week to be admitted in June.

Statistics scrutinised by The Blackpool Lead show that, from May to August, 86 mental health patients were left waiting more than 24 hours to be admitted after the decision was made to admit them.

Some 47 were left waiting for 48 hours or more, while at least 23 waited at least 72 hours and at least eight waited more than 96 hours.

The longest wait was for 9,977 minutes, or six days, 22 hours and 17 minutes.

A Vic spokesperson blamed a surge in people turning up to A&E - but admitted that more could be done.

“A&E attendances across the country remain very high,” they said.

“At Blackpool Teaching Hospitals there were around 1,000 more attendances during August 2025 than there were in August 2024.

“We are grateful for the hard work of our colleagues who helped reduce the number of people facing longer waits.

“During April-June this year, the number of Emergency Department patients who were admitted to hospital, transferred or discharged within four hours stood at 78% - above the national average.”

They added: “We know we need to do more.

“For example, we know that too many patients suffering from a mental health issue are experiencing long waits in Emergency Departments across the country.

“We are working hard to improve the situation in Blackpool.

“Recently, we’ve worked with national colleagues on a 10-point action plan which includes looking at our governance, lessons learnt, ensuring safe and dignified care for all patients and examining our escalation process.”

Mr Pearson was admitted to the Vic, in Whinney Heys Road, after overdosing on painkillers last August 17, an inquest was told last month.

He should have been seen by mental health specialists within four hours but was judged to be low-risk, the court heard.

He was still waiting 22 hours later when he died by suicide in a hospital toilet.

Julie Knowles, Mr Pearson’s mother, said he was “badly failed and let down”, being “largely ignored” despite being “so vulnerable and suffering a breakdown”.

The Blackpool Lead asked the Vic why seriously unwell patients are still waiting more than 24 hours for care - a delay commonly known as a “trolley breach” - when Mr Pearson’s death should have been a red flag.

It also asked what concrete changes were implemented after Mr Pearson’s death, when, and how they have affected waiting times.

And it asked how many patients in the FOI data had proper hourly monitoring, as Mr Pearson should have had.

It did not answer.

The spotlight again falls on the Vic at a time when it is already reeling from a string of horrific headlines.

In recent weeks, it has been named as one of the country’s worst hospitals, while its maternity and neonatal services will be examined as part of a national probe into “failures” at a string of NHS trusts.

An inquest ruled last month that grandmother Valerie Kneale, who was found covered in blood on the stroke unit, was murdered, with blunders at the hospital blamed for her killer escaping justice.

Police are also investigating possible corporate failings contributing to the death, ill-treatment or neglect of patients on the stroke unit, where patients were secretly sedated by nurses - now behind bars - to keep them quiet and give them an easy shift.

Grieving relatives have been shown the wrong body in the mortuary, decaying radioactive waste material has been lost by workers in the nuclear medicine department and an independent review has been opened into the trust’s new fetal medicine service, which provides care for unborn children and their mothers.

Experts were called in to review all youngsters treated by the children’s hearing service over the past five years after an inspection uncovered serious safety failings, including under-qualified staff and missing equipment.

And top heart surgeon Amal Bose, who was described as “the root cause of a toxic and sexualised culture” at the Vic, was last month jailed for groping five female co-workers.

The hospital’s woes, covered extensively by The Blackpool Lead since its launch, have started to attract national attention.

A two-page special investigation in the Daily Mail on September 29 said: “A rapist consultant. Nurses who drugged patients for ‘an easy life’. A young man found dead in a toilet - and an elderly stroke victim sexually assaulted on the ward. After SIX staff are jailed in two years, why this is truly the… HOSPITAL THAT SHAMES BRITAIN”.

Mr Pearson’s mother Julie Knowles told the publication: “I would be frightened to go into that hospital, to be honest with you.

“Speaking to people, I think they are scared as well because we have now heard so many horror stories.”

The former medical receptionist at a Blackpool GP surgery added: “Everyone at the hospital kept saying, ‘I am sorry, I am sorry’. But that is not going to bring my son back.”

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Fracking as part of the Labour vs Reform culture war is bad news for Lancashire

Analysis by Luke Beardsworth

Lancashire appears to be in something of a fracking stalemate in a revival of a drama we all thought had been put to bed.