Investment in hospital services at Southport is continuing with the opening of a discharge and transfer lounge for patients who are ready to go home.

The £136,000 investment comes on top of a £1.25m improvement to the Accident and Emergency department. An eight-bed Clinical Decision Unit opened in the spring. Work on a bigger, modernised waiting room and new ambulance drop-off area gets under way next month.

Hazel Irizar, Head of Patient Flow, said: “The discharge lounge has three beds and a side-room for less able or infectious patients. There is also a seating area for up to eight other patients.

“Patients move to the lounge on the day of their discharge if they are unable to go home directly – for example, where they’re waiting for medicines to be dispensed. It also helps us get ward beds ready for newly-admitted patients.”

As well as buildings and equipment, Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust is also investing in clinical staff.

More than £300,000 will be used to expand the Critical Care Outreach Team to a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week operation. The team helps with the treatment of patients whose condition begins to deteriorate unexpectedly.

The Trust is also recruiting three further orthopaedic consultants, two more consultant radiologists and five additional senior doctors.

Silas Nicholls, Chief Executive, said: “When I joined the Trust in April, I said I wanted the hospital where I live to be one we can be proud of. These very necessary investments are a down-payment on that pledge.

“I also want to thank and pay tribute to staff across the Trust whose continued hard work and dedication underpins everything we do to benefit patients.”