Parents and community leaders have reacted angrily and Burnley Liberal Democrats have organised a protest march a week tomorrow.

Protesters will march from Queen Victoria Road near Queen's Park to the bandstand in the town centre where council leader Gordon Birtwistle and others will speak.

A Facebook page has been set up and leaflets will be delivered to every home in Burnley next week.

On Tuesday the Express revealed how Deerplay Ward is the latest casualty of the controversial Meeting Patients' Needs programme implemented by East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust to spearhead a radical shake-up of health care in East Lancashire to curb spiralling debts. Critics have slammed the move saying it could lead to the closure of Burnley General.

Under MPN first mooted in 2006:
• Emergency "blue light" services were removed from Burnley General with ambulances taking patients to Royal Blackburn.
• Burnley's A&E replaced by an urgent care centre.
• All children's inpatient services to move to Blackburn by the end of the year with a children's observation and assessment unit based in Burnley.
• A £31m. women's and newborns' unit to open at Burnley.
• Gynaecology to be mainly based at Burnley

100-year-old Burnley great-grandma Mrs Agnes Barton spent three months in the former Victoria Hospital as a child and said the plans were "horrific."

"I was shocked when I found out about the children's ward. Just think of the mothers who have one two or three children and one has to go into hospital. What's a mother going to do having to travel to Blackburn and back?"

Mrs Barton, who has two children, eight grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren and is a former auxillary nurse, said she was shocked to learn Deerplay Ward, which has cared for generations of sick children is to close.

"It's the last straw to make the children go to Blackburn. It's cruel because these children will know they are not in Burnley where their parents are.

"I think it's coming to the point where there will not be anything left in Burnley and it's a scandal. It's awful. People without children are making these decisions. We managed the hospitals during the war years when the men were away and things were at their worst."