MERSEYSIDE MPs will meet with the health secretary tonight to discuss the fate of the region’s burns units.

Andy Burnham will be quizzed by the group of MPs – which includes Eddie O’Hara and Derek Twigg – about the future of burns care at Whiston and Alder Hey hospitals.

Units at both hospitals have been left off a shortlist to become “supra” centres.

This means the most severely burnt patients face a journey to Manchester or Wakefield for treatment.

Those in favour of the proposal claim only a dozen Merseyside patients will be affected, and insist units will not suffer as a result.

However, many fear the change will result in both centres being downgraded, with funding and expertise being drawn to the other sites.

Mr Twigg, MP for Halton, last night said: “We want him to overturn any suggestion Mersey units will be downgraded.

“He is new in post so I am not 100% what we will get, but we want to stop any future movement of services.”

The shortlisted sites are Wythenshawe Hospital in Greater Manchester, Manchester Children’s Hospital, and Pinderfields hospital in Wakefield, Yorkshire.

Mr O’Hara, MP for Knowsley South, thinks the Mersey units will suffer if supra centres are created: “No matter what they say, the inevitable consequence of these recommendations is that Whiston and Alder Hey will be downgraded.

“Patients will face a long journey to other hospitals for treatment.”