Storm over hospital merger plan

A MERGER between Warrington Hospital’s management body and that of Whiston Hospital is one of a number of options being considered in a bid to “rescue” the struggling Merseyside hospital.
The possibility has come as a shock to hospital chiefs at Warrington who, it is believed, knew nothing about the proposal until the last few days.
Another option is that Whiston could be handed over to a private company, health minister Simon Burns has admitted.
Whiston Hospital was recently rebuilt under a £350 million Private Finance Initiative (PFI) but is now struggling to fund £20.3 million annual payments.
The hospital is run by St Helens and Knowsley Hospitals NHS Trust and Warrington and Halton General hospitals are run by North Cheshire Hospitals NHS Trust.
A health service insider said: “Whiston is effectively broke and as such cannot get foundation status.
“But there would be very strong objections from both Warrington and Halton to such a merger.”
Mr Burns confirmed during a stormy Commons debate that bringing in the private sector to run Whiston was one of three options being considered, although he denied this would amount to “privatisation.”
Labour MPs from Halton and St Helens were furious. They said the Knowsley and St Helsns Trust refused to consider bringing in private managers because they believed it could damage patient safety.
The other two options are for the government to bail out the trust – or for it to be merged with the Warrington-based North Cheshire Hospitals Trust.
It is understood there would be strong opposition from the Warrington trust and also from NHS Warrington.
Mr Burns says the coalition government is simply carrying on the policy of the previous Labour government and that talk of privatisation is “nonsense.”
He says use of the private sector would not mean privatisation, nor would it lead to poorer levels of service.
No decisions will be made before June or July.