The partnership between Southport and Ormskirk hospitals and neighbouring St Helens and Knowsley trust is one year old this week.

Originally established to ensure Southport and Ormskirk could continue to provide high quality and sustainable services to local people, one year on the partnership has also brought significant investment to the Trust’s hospital estate, helping to deliver more timely patient care.

Developments over the last 12 months include:

• £12 million in investments secured since September 2021, enhancing services, estates and facilities to improve patient and staff experience
• Ormskirk hospital’s endoscopy unit fully refurbished to increase capacity and shorten time to diagnosis
• £1.1m discharge lounge opened at Southport hospital
• Funding secured to install a second CT scanner at Southport hospital, improving the quality of stroke and other diagnostic services for local patients
• S&O haematology service reopened to new referrals. Patients no longer need to travel to Liverpool for treatment
• Additional staff recruited to the paediatric dietetics with the service reopened to new referrals. This has resulted in significant reductions to waiting times
• Reduced waiting times for rheumatology services following the sharing of clinical capacity across both trusts

The chair of Southport and Ormskirk, Neil Masom, said: “The partnership has undoubtedly made a positive difference to the care provided to our patients. Over the summer the boards of both trusts met and agreed that working together has produced many benefits for the patients we serve and our local communities. Thanks to the hard work of all our staff, we are pleased to say that this partnership is proving a great success. Looking ahead, the trusts will now explore options to formalise the partnership.”