Warrington South MP David Mowat last night used a House of Commons debate to raise his concerns about the removal of vascular services from Warrington Hospital.

The Cheshire & Merseyside Vascular Services Review has announced that Warrington Hospital, along with Arrowe Park Hospital on the Wirral, will lose its specialist vascular services department in favour of a "centre of excellence" at the Countess of Chester Hospital.

David Mowat said:

"This review seems to have been carried out in a piecemeal fashion which is a cause for concern. If every centralisation decision is taken in this piecemeal way, Warrington and Halton hospitals might well lose out every single time. When decisions on centralisation are made, there needs to be some kind of strategy for deciding what will end up where, so that every decision is not made on a piecemeal basis

"As a result of Labour's botched PFI contract, we have a financial black hole just up the road at Whiston which could suck patients away from Warrington. With specialist vascular services now being moved elsewhere too, there is a real danger that this could have a detrimental effect, not just on the services provided for people in Warrington, but also on the future finances of our hospital."