MEDICAL services at two hospitals could be closed to cut costs, the Daily Post can reveal.

Patient groups have condemned the possibility of some services at Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust shutting over the coming months, as the hospitals proceed with an £8m “recovery plan”.

The Trust is hoping to receive more funds from Sefton and Central Lancashire Primary Care Trusts – which commission their services – to prevent the action but negotiations will take until June to conclude.

Initial temporary cuts of three months could result, and if more money is not obtained the closures could become permanent. The trust last night refused to reveal which services are under threat.

The Government expects all trusts to make clinical efficiencies of 3% which is equivalent to £4m for Southport and Ormskirk. The trust must save an additional £8m by April 2009.

The news follows the announcement last week that 28 beds will close to help save the initial £4m. Southport and Ormkirk claims shorter hospital lengths of stay, new techniques, increasing treatments on a day case or outpatient basis and improved community support services all mean less beds are needed.

But Cath Regan, co-founder of patient group Cares, thinks Southport is losing out: “I just do not believe that any closures will be temporary, after all that has happened in the past. We have already lost our children‚ A&E and maternity unit in 2003 when it transferred to Ormskirk, we are losing 28 beds and now more services are threatened.

“I have received many calls from staff at Southport Hospital who are really scared they will lose their jobs because of cuts.”

Minutes from a recent finance committee at the trust, discussing Sefton PCT’s current £2m offer, read: “The trust would...have no alternative but to proceed with immediate implementation of the very challenging £8m-plus recovery plan given the lack of certainty of any further support, even if this meant that some services may have to close temporarily only to be reinstated after the three month period”.

A spokesman for the trust said: “Although we have concluded the majority of the 2008/09 contract with Sefton and Central Lancashire PCTs, we continue to discuss with them the effect the large savings target will have on our services and performance.

“We expect that we will actually have to make savings equivalent to 6% of our budget and we are working closely with the commissioners of local health services to agree how that can be achieved whilst maintaining our exemplary standards.

“We are endeavouring to make sure services are not closed whilst financial issues are resolved.

“If we do not receive any more funds we will have to look at efficiency savings and ways to meet that short fall. Permanent service closures are a possibility”.

Sefton PCT confirmed there are a number of “outstanding issues” currently being looked at.

PCT chief executive Leigh Griffin said: “We will continue to work closely with the trust to ensure that services for local people are maintained to a high standard, which is our priority”.

A union representative at the trust, John Flannery, added: “Over the last couple of years services have been brought back to the bare bones and further cuts would demoralise staff even more.”

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