AN MP last night said she will meet the health secretary over plans by a Wirral hospital to cut staff and beds.

As revealed in yesterday’s Daily Post, 29 nursing and support staff are to be cut in a major re-organisation of Arrowe Park Hospital to save millions of pounds over the next three years.

The full effect of all the changes will reduce the existing total number of inpatient beds, equating to two wards, as the hospital’s medical division seeks to save £10m. Last night, Wallasey MP Angela Eagle said: “I will not stand on the sidelines and accept any moves or talk of reducing the number of hospital beds anywhere.

“I have called for an urgent meeting with Andy Burnham to discuss and get to the bottom of the proposals put forward by the NHS trust.

“Hospitals have been transformed over the past decade.

“There has been massive extra NHS investment in all our local hospitals and just recently Victoria Central Hospital was partially rebuilt and modernised through government investment.”

The changes will see a new stroke clinic and streamlined care for cardiology and respiratory care.

A briefing pack for staff said the entire trust, which has a budget of £265m this year, has to meet “cost reduction targets” of £13.75m this year, followed by savings of £12.5m in two years.

Chief executive Len Richards said compulsory redundancies were not expected.