Lib Dem Leader Calls for Unified Push for A&E Services Consolidation in Southport
In welcoming the proposed return of Children’s A&E to Southport Hospital, following an internal NHS review Lib Dem leader, Cllr. John Pugh, has called for a truly unified political push to get the proposal over the line, cautioning that previous moves to bring back services have disappeared in a puff of smoke.
The new proposal this time comes from the Shaping Care Together Joint Committee led by NHS Cheshire and Merseyside and NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria and recommends that Southport and Ormskirk Emergency Services are consolidated on one or the other site. It would cost £44m to do this at Southport and twice that at the Ormskirk site.
“The separation of A&E which was almost unique in the UK was never an arrangement that made sense to the people of Southport and was imposed by the executive of the NHS in the defiance of local opposition”, says John Pugh
“ The unity shown by local politicians on this subject has been at times impressive , " says Cllr Pugh. “ Only last November, Sefton Council unanimously passed a motion requesting NHS chiefs to back the return of Children's A&E. However, local politicians have never decided these matters. The power resides with NHS chiefs and they have the internal politics of the NHS to deal with.
Previous plans to build a new hospital and, earlier, to start a Children’s Minor Injuries department were developed and then forgotten. Hope has come and at times gone.
That’s why it’s so important that the town must speak with one voice.
There will be opposition in Ormskirk and questions about the status of maternity services there, and there are always many other calls on NHS investment. That's why a unified voice from the town and the Council is so important. Politicians aren’t making this decision but any politician who wants to drive wedges between the parties will be serving no-one’s interest, but their own.
This is too precious an opportunity to squander. We must all speak with one voice. "