Patients and staff at Southport and Ormskirk hospitals are benefitting from a £4.25m windfall earned with support of the Trust’s partnership with St Helens and Knowsley Teaching hospitals.

Nearly £2m will be invested in a temporary, standalone endoscopy unit at Ormskirk hospital which comes in addition to £500,000 for the upgrade of the existing unit in the main building.

A further £1m will fund a new discharge lounge at Southport hospital which will be built next to the main entrance, now under construction and due for completion in March.

A mobile CT scanner and funding to improve the flow of patients through hospital will be among the other investments and schemes.

Anne-Marie Stretch, managing director of Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust, said: “By working together, the two trusts have successfully secured a significant early investment in our future together.

“It comes on top of the clinically-led work we’re doing to stabilise our fragile services, such as the haematology collaboration which has allowed us to reopen the Southport and Ormskirk service to new referrals for the first time in more than a year.”