A PROTEST group set up after fears a Merseyside hospital could be privatised met with their MP to discuss the next stage of the campaign.

The group was launched after leaked Government documents revealed Whiston hospital could be partly run by a private company to cover running costs.

Since then it has held a number of public meetings and also started a petition which has so far gathered around 6,000 signatures.

The secret document outlined three possibilities for the hospital’s future as a way to plug a gap of £20m, one of which included the involvement of private firms.

St Helens South MP Shaun Woodward, who attended yesterday’s meeting with hospital staff, unions and members of Save Whiston and St Helens Hospital (SWASH), said he would be meeting with Health minister Simon Burns to demand that there be no private sector involvement in the running of Whiston hospital and its smaller cousin at St Helens.

He said: “The anger with the Government’s plans to propose using private sector partners in St Helens is becoming even stronger.

“In the last 10 years the NHS has been transformed in St Helens. Two new hospitals and state of the art new GP services have finally delivered what St Helens always needed but for too long failed to be delivered.”

He added: “The Government are in disarray with their reorganisation of the NHS across the country. Now they want to turn local services upside down.

“I will be meeting with Health Ministers shortly to share the anger which is reaching fever pitch in St Helens.

“The Government need to address the real problem here. A problem they made when they started turning the existing NHS upside down.