Hospital mergers mooted in Merseyside and Cheshire savings plan

Clockwise from top left: Aintree, Broadgreen, Liverpool Women's Hospital and the Royal Liverpool

Four hospitals in Merseyside could merge under cost-cutting plans being considered by the NHS.

NHS trusts in Merseyside and Cheshire face a funding gap of nearly £1bn by 2021, the health service has confirmed.

A report leaked to the Liverpool Echo included the proposal to merge the Royal Liverpool, Broadgreen, Aintree and Liverpool Women's hospitals.

Louise Shepherd, leading work on the plan, said it was in the "early days" and the public would be consulted.

All local health and care providers in England have come together into geographic areas called 'footprints' for which they must create a five-year sustainability and transformation plan (STP).

The Merseyside and Cheshire STP suggests merging the four hospitals to help meet a predicted £999m financial shortfall.

'Astonished' and 'worried'

"It's a big challenge... We anticipate that we will have a £999m cumulative gap in our finances by 2021 if we do nothing", Ms Shepherd said in a statement.

The Merseyside and Cheshire STP is "the second largest in the country" with "32% of people living in the most deprived areas and more over 75s than elsewhere," she said.

"We need to close these gaps to provide the standard of care we believe the public deserves".

She said an "initial document has been pulled together" and public consultations would be undertaken "once some further work has been done".

Paul Summers, from public service union Unison, said people were "astonished and astounded" at the scale of savings needed as they had "not been anticipating such a shortfall in funding for the NHS".

"They're really worried about it, the NHS staff that I've spoken to today are concerned - they don't know what's coming.

"They understand that they operate in services that have to make cuts as they're going along - and they have done since 2010 - but after today's leaked report, they're really worried and shocked at the scale for these demands for savings," he said.

The Merseyside and Cheshire STP area covers 12 Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs):

• NHS Eastern Cheshire

• NHS Halton

• NHS Knowsley

• NHS Liverpool

• NHS South Cheshire

• NHS South Sefton

• NHS Southport and Formby

• NHS St Helens

• NHS Vale Royal

• NHS Warrington

• NHS West Cheshire

• NHS Wirral