A PLAN has been put forward to “move” Warrington Hospital to a new site south of the Manchester Ship Canal.
It was outlined at a recent meeting of the health scrutiny committee of Warrington Borough Council by the chief executive of Warrington and Halton Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Mel Pickup.
But Warrington North MP Helen Jones has described it as “outrageous” and unacceptable.
She said: “This plan is outrageous and would massively disadvantage my constituents in Warrington North. This would create a Warrington Hospital which would be inaccessible for most of Warrington.
“I will do everything in my power to oppose these plans. Whilst a new hospital building would be welcome, it would need to be at a site which is accessible to the majority of the town. This proposal would benefit rural Cheshire much more than Warrington.
“I will be seeking an urgent meeting with the Chief Executive of Warrington and Halton NHS Hospital Trust to discuss these plans.”
9 Comments
Another ‘slam’ from Helen ‘Fillon’ Jones. I’ve lost count of the number of how many public officials that she ‘slammed’ or others that she has ‘panned’. I might have more time for her if she’s already say, arranged a meeting with the CEO of the hospital to get to the bottom of this. So has she? On current form I’d say probably not as it’s not her style. Grab a headline. And then look for the next story. Poor poor show again.
It will be interesting to see if she does though and what she finds out and passes on. Maybe someone from Warrington Council’s ‘Health Scrutiny Committee’ could give her or us more info. Is the committee sworn to confidentiality regarding their meetings or should documents and discussions like this be in the public domain….do they make minutes in their meetings ? FOI request to WBC maybe ??……
She said: “This plan is outrageous and would massively disadvantage my constituents in Warrington North. This would create a Warrington Hospital which would be inaccessible for most of Warrington’
Why would a new hospital disadvantage her constituents and why does she say the new one would be inaccessible for most of Warrington.
Surely there will be a road to the new hospital, and presumably a bus link from the town centre bus station…and of course there are taxis too.
I can’t see how it would be any worse than it is with the current old and dated hospital where it is now with it’s lack of parking and for those who don’t drive it’s two busses and a pain to get to get there…so many people from other constituences have been ‘disadvantaged’ for many years but have managed ok.
If the hospital do decided to build a new one elsewhere then presumably they would sell the land the existing one is on….. Would Warrington Council would jump to buy it…as they already have future plans for a lot of the area just down the road, not that they have advised any of the businesses owners who currently own their land or the businesses they trade from that the might find themselves out of business sometime in the next 10 years or so. I guess they will find out when the compulsory purchase orders from the council land through their letterboxes though..
Very doubtful that she will demand a meeting. She never does. Her form appears to be shout, accuse point finger, then exits stage left. She did the same about Sandy lane nursery recently and has suddenly now gone very quiet on the subject. Sadly she takes people for fools. Even supporters of her own party.
Exactly WHERE, south of the Manchester Ship Canal is this new hospital supposed to go?
And considering the massive debt they are already in exactly where is the money going to come from?
Warrington has grown so much over the years that the hospital services are stretched to the limit. If the plans were to build a second hospital whilst retaining the present one it might be beneficial but that is not what is planned. More likely is some kind of money saving merger, perhaps Halton hospital is to be scrapped and as part of the ‘Cheshire deal’ perhaps even Chester? Whatever it is, all the secrecy suggests it is not going to benefit any us, North or South Warrington.
The Health Overview Committee is a public meeting to which the public are welcome, hardly secret!
There is masses of land near the M6/M62 where they could build a new hospital. Not too far from the current one… they just need to convince SatNam to sell the land 🙂
“Dizzy” I can just see the Taxi meter ticking away when caught in the bottleneck that is Wilderspool Causeway.
The move would be an inconvenience to GGHT Tenants many who work at the hospital in cheaper accommodation would have to use their already low pay on traveling. Followed by http://www.gghtorguk.n.nu the new gght independent tenants site…