'Birthplace of the NHS' is to lose A&E unit, Jeremy Hunt confirms Protesters outside Trafford general hospital in Manchester last week. Trafford general hospital, the Manchester facility known as the birthplace of the NHS, is to lose its A&E unit and other key services in a reorganisation that has been backed by doctors but opposed by MPs, trade unions and celebrities. A week after the NHS celebrated its 65th birthday, health secretary Jeremy Hunt confirmed that Trafford's A&E unit will be downgraded to an urgent care centre and the hospital will stop providing intensive care and emergency surgery because the safety of those procedures cannot be guaranteed. Hunt told parliament on Thursday that Trafford hospital could not survive in the long term in its present form and that the changes caused by his "tough decision" would ultimately improve the quality of care patients receive. He endorsed the view of the government's advisory Independent Reconfiguration Panel, which examined the changes - proposed by local NHS leaders - and concluded that they should go ahead. Nye Bevan marked the creation of the NHS on 5 July 1948 by visiting Trafford general, which was then called Park hospital. The then minister of health, who was greeted by scores of nurses on his arrival, told 13-year-old Sylvia Beckingham, who has been described as the NHS's first patient, that it was "a milestone in history - the most civilised step any country had ever taken." Trafford's A&E is one of the smallest in England and, in 2010-11, at its busiest, saw just seven patients an hour during the day and only two patients an hour overnight. It will now become an urgent care centre, overseen by a consultant and open from 8am to midnight every day of the week, but only after nearby hospitals such as the Manchester Royal Infirmary and Wythenshawe hospital have shown they are consistently meeting the target of treating 95% of A&E patients within four hours, to prove they can cope with those who previously would have gone to Trafford. However, that should only amount to 25 patients a day, Hunt said. But campaigners who have opposed the long-planned curtailment of Trafford's role criticised the move. It is tearing the heart out of the hospital - the birthplace of the NHS - and that means that the hospital's future is in real danger. It will mean that patients will have to travel further and wait longer for treatment," said Matthew Finnegan, chair of the Save Trafford General campaign, who said local people's views had been ignored. Kate Green, Labour MP for Stretford and Urmston, said local people would be "angry, horrified and worried" by Hunt's decision. Other hospitals in Manchester were already often missing the four-hour target and so could not cope with more A&E patients, Green added. Trafford's intensive care unit also had to go, Hunt added, because while the Greater Manchester Critical Care Network said it needed to treat at least 200 cases a year to help doctors keep their skills up to date, it only saw 93 in 2010-11, Hunt added. Also, while the Royal College of Surgeons advises that hospitals providing emergency surgery should serve 450,000 to 500,000 people, Trafford's catchment area is just 100,000 strong.