JOBS and services could be lost at Warrington Hospital if a merger takes places between North Cheshire Hospitals NHS Trust and Whiston Hospital.
This is the view of Warrington North MP Helen Jones following reports of a possible merger to bail out the cash 
strapped Merseyside hospital.
The Labour MP (pictured) said: “After recent comments by Government Ministers about a potential merger of NHS Trusts that could affect Warrington Hospital I wanted to raise the matter urgently in the House of Commons.
“Such a merger could have a severe impact on the future of services and jobs at Warrington Hospital.
“These issues are very important to me and thousands of people across Warrington.
“I hope that the Government will provide answers swiftly so that local people and staff at the hospital know where they stand. The uncertainty created by the Minister’s remarks is unacceptable when it comes to such an important issue as our local hospital.”
Ms Jones raised the future of the hospital in Parliament as a point of order.
She said health minister Simon Burns had suggested during a recent debate that one way of solving the problems at Whiston Hospital would be a merger with North Cheshire Hospitals NHS Trust.
“That suggestion has caused widespread concern in my constituency about a possible loss of jobs and services from Warrington Hospital.”
Whiston Hospital was recently rebuilt under a £350 million Private Finance Initiative (PFI) but is now struggling to fund £20.3 million annual payments.
Another option is that Whiston could be handed over to a private company – or the government could bail it out.
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.
Widespread objections to the merger option have been voiced in both Warrington and Halton.
Hospital jobs at risk, claims MP
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Gary Skentelbery
Experienced journalist for more than 40 years. Managing Director of magazine publishing group with three in-house titles and on-line daily newspaper for Warrington. Experienced writer, photographer, PR consultant and media expert having written for local, regional and national newspapers. Specialties: PR, media, social networking, photographer, networking, advertising, sales, media crisis management. Chair of Warrington Healthwatch Director Warrington Chamber of Commerce Patron Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace. Trustee Warrington Disability Partnership. Former Chairman of Warrington Town FC.
3 Comments
Just wondering which party was in power when Whiston hospital was rebuilt with a PFI, and if the Government of the time didn’t realise it was unaffordable and that what is now happening is an inevitable consequence of that method of financing. It might be very helpful if a figure for the total value of all PFIs and the total repayments over their lifetime was published. If this problem is affecting Whiston hospital, it must be affecting other hospitals elsewhere. They need to be listed.
Creating knee-jerk panic yet again. Why fuel speculation and gossip until more details are known? Talk about attention seeking!!!!!!
Everyones job is at risk several times in their lives…nurses are nothing special, its a job they get paid, why do people harp on like they are angels and special cases. I’m grateful for the work they do but its not like they do it for free, its a career, and as jobs go more secure than most and reasonably well paid and dont say its not…compare it to the vast majority of care work its very well paid.