MERSEYSIDE is on the verge of losing its prestigious burns units to Manchester after it failed to make a shortlist to gain special funding.

It means serious burns victims would have to travel more than 40 miles for treatment as key specialists and staff slowly take their expertise elsewhere.

Union leaders and hospital sources told the ECHO that Whiston hospital’s nationally renowned Mersey Burns Unit was left off a list of potential sites for a planned North West major burns centre.

Alder Hey’s unit for child burns victims did not made the grade either.

The list is part of a recommendation from a long-running review of burns care in the region, but sources said the decision is not yet a “done deal”.

The current burns units would in effect be downgraded, and seriously burnt patients – including car crash victims, people injured in house fires and those involved in chemical incidents – would have to travel to Manchester or further for treatment.

A doctor at Whiston told the ECHO: “I work very closely with the burns unit and it has a fantastic national reputation.

“All the staff at the hospital are concerned.

“It is the thin end of the wedge. If certain services are provided elsewhere, it will de-skill staff and then they will move.

“It will slowly become a less and less important unit.

“It is of great significance to Merseyside people, who will have a further distance to travel to get essential treatment.”