Children’s A&E Services to Move to Southport Hospital Under New NHS Plan

Children’s accident and emergency services are set to move from Ormskirk and District General Hospital to Southport and Formby District General Hospital following approval of a major NHS reorganisation.

Health leaders have agreed plans to bring both adult and children’s A and E services onto the same site at Southport Hospital, ending the long standing split arrangement between the two hospitals.

Currently, adult A and E services are provided in Southport while children’s A and E is based in Ormskirk, around ten miles away. The services were separated in 2003 after the government concluded it would be safer for each hospital to specialise.

However, local health leaders have argued for several years that splitting emergency services between two hospitals connected by narrow rural roads has created challenges for staff and patients.

Craig Harris from the health board says the changes would be implemented over the next three years

Craig Harris, a member of the NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board, said the decision aims to create a stronger and more reliable emergency service.

He said bringing services together at Southport would help provide a fully round the clock children’s A and E service, something that has not been consistently possible at Ormskirk in recent years due to staffing shortages.

Since 2020, the children’s A and E department at Ormskirk has been closed overnight between midnight and 8am, meaning children requiring urgent care during those hours have already been redirected elsewhere.

Health leaders also told the committee that around 70 percent of attendances at Ormskirk could potentially be managed outside of hospital, with plans to strengthen community healthcare including investment in GP services, a new health centre and improvements to urgent treatment centres.

However, the decision has been controversial.

West Lancashire MP Ashley Dalton said many residents in West Lancashire feel the area is being overlooked and are concerned about how they will access emergency care if services move.

She described the decision as really disappointing and said she intends to write to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Wes Streeting asking him to review the plans.

Dalton said there is a strong feeling locally that healthcare services in West Lancashire are gradually being reduced.

Health leaders said that if the decision had been made to move emergency services to Ormskirk instead, seven other hospital departments would also have needed to relocate including general medicine, critical care, respiratory medicine and psychiatric liaison services at an estimated cost of 91 million pounds.

By contrast, moving children’s A and E to Southport means only one additional service, paediatric inpatient care, would need to relocate at a cost of around 33 million pounds.

The changes are expected to be phased in over the next three years.

While NHS leaders say the move will improve safety and allow a consistent 24 hour service for children, the decision continues to spark debate across the region as communities consider what it will mean for future access to emergency care.