WIRRAL out-patients and clinicians have breathed a huge sigh of relief after threats to close their local clinics were lifted.

Last week, patients were served with an “out of the blue” 90-day notice that gynaecology, orthopaedic, dermatology and geriatric medicine clinics based at Wallasey’s Victoria Central Health Centre were at risk of closure.

The services were set to be moved to an already crowded Arrowe Park Hospital several miles away in Upton following £15 million cuts to the NHS Trust’s budget.

Staff and patients contacted Wallasey MP Angela Eagle to complain following the notice, with Ms Eagle concerned that the move would make it more difficult and expensive for them to get to their routine out-patient clinics when people are already struggling with pay freezes and the increased cost of living.

But today, a spokesman for Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said “successful negotiations” had led to the closure notice being rescinded.

Ms Eagle said: “I’m really pleased that health chiefs have been able to juggle these harmful £15m Tory cuts and keep key services local to the people who rely upon them.

“They can’t afford the added costs of time off work and travel with wages down £1,600 since 2010, and we can’t afford to lose this multi-million pound facility.

“No matter how hard the Tories try to cut the NHS back, the staff and patients show the huge public support for keeping the NHS together, in public hands.”

Victoria Central was re-opened under the last Labour Government’s multi-million rebuild in 2007 and is also home to the separately managed NHS Walk-In Centre.

A spokesman for Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: “Following successful negotiations between key partners, we’re pleased that the notice to remove our services from Victoria Central has been rescinded.”