ANOTHER governor believes the changes could lead to more deaths.

Gordon Jackson has worked as a governor for Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Trust for seven years and thinks that the plan would see more people dying because they will have to travel further for emergency surgery.

He thinks that if Wigan Infirmary is not made a specialist hospital the trust will not be able to deliver the services to its current quality.

“It will have a big effect on all three sites across the borough. We might have no emergency surgery so if you have a burst appendix you would be taken straight to a specialist hospital,” he said.

“And if you need emergency surgery, time is of the essence. To travel to Salford in car can take an hour. How is an ambulance going to get there with someone who is in serious need of an appendectomy?

“They say they can do it in 15 minutes. It is going to lead to mortalities.”