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7 February 2018
Vol 25 ● Issue 6
www.champnews.com
EXPANSION PLANS FOR HOSPITAL A&E
Health chiefs secure funding for state-of-the-art module building SOUTHPORT Hospital’s A&E department, which is used by adults in West Lancashire requiring emergency treatment, is set to be expanded after health chiefs secured funding to attach a stateof-the-art ‘module’ to the existing building. The new unit will increase the number of patients who can be seen and treated, and will hopefully reduce waiting times as well as easing the pressure on admissions at busy periods. Its arrival should also help reduce ‘ambulance stacking’ at the hospital. The go-ahead for the upgrade will ease mounting concerns that Southport will lose its A&E capability to another hospital should any reorganisation plans be forthcoming. Southport and Ormskirk NHS Hospital Trust were tightlipped about the ‘module’ plans when approached by the Champion but we understand from sources that the trust has been awarded funding for the project to get underway and are in the process of finalising details for the expansion. Last month, the Government announced that an additional £1.3m grant is to be given to the trust to help it cope with winter pressures. The extra funding is part of an immediate £337m boost for NHS hospitals this winter. In February last year, Southport A&E department was one of 24 casualty units across the country that
Established 40 Years
was to be sited at Southport Hospital, Therese Patten, chief operating officer, told us: “We are delighted to have received additional funds to invest in improvements to the Accident and Emergency department at Southport Hospital. “These will benefit both patients and the staff who care for them.” A spokesperson for the trust added: “We will issue further details about the plans later this month.” The spokesperson confirmed, when asked, that the funds they had obtained Southport Hospital’s A&E, which treats adult patients from West were to be used for an addiLancashire, set to be expanded tional A&E building. The Champion understands a number of specialist were marked for potential closure or significant downgrading as part of national NHS cost-cutting firms have already tendered for the project. The measures, sparking fears that patients would be at companies are experts in providing fast-track modserious risk travelling further afield for emergency ular healthcare buildings which use modern methods of construction and are an innovative treatment. In 2003, the children’s A&E unit at Southport Hos- alternative to a traditional construction but in a pital was closed, meaning children and teenagers fraction of the time. Although full details of the Southport project are aged up to 18 have to travel to Ormskirk for emergency care. Adults living in West Lancashire need to yet to be revealed, the modules can be delivered to site by crane and can provide an almost instant settravel to Southport for urgent treatment. Although the trust declined to confirm a ‘module’ up for patient care.
West Lancs line set to miss out on new trains
NHS staff are ready to collect any unreturned wheelchairs
‘Bring back our wheelchairs’ plea AN appeal has been launched calling on members of the public to return wheelchairs, which are no longer being used, to the NHS in a bid to save much-needed resources. It is estimated that 300 wheelchairs and expensive pressure relief cushions - worth in excess of £250,000 - have not been returned and instead are either thrown away, given to charity shops or even sold in car boot sales! And Ormskirk and Skelmersdale have been listed as ‘hot spots’ in the region for the problem. Now members of the public across West Lancashire are being urged to telephone a special hotline number 01695 556 492, so that staff can go out to collect the unused wheelchairs. The 300 missing wheelchairs are each valued between £300 and £1,500. In addition, there are a handful of battery-powered wheelchairs which are each worth as much as £2,000. Yvonne Baron, wheelchair service manager, at Southport and Ormskirk NHS Trust, said: “The NHS is losing out on thousands of pounds worth of wheelchairs each year. “It is a great source of frustration to staff that the NHS has to spend cash replacing items not returned. “We would urge patients or family members who no longer need their NHS wheelchair to telephone the hotline number and we will arrange for one of our engineers to go out and collect them at a convenient time to you.”
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