WIRRAL out-patients may be faced with increased travel costs and journey times to see specialists as Arrowe Park Hospital faces a £15 million cut in its core budget.

Wirral University Hospital Trust NHS Foundation Trust runs gynaecology, orthopaedic, dermatology and geriatric medicine clinics out of Victoria Central Health Centre in Wallasey in a bid to be closer to patients.

But cuts to its Government income and increasing cost pressures with this winter’s A&E crisis are forcing the trust to consider closing the Wallasey clinics and transferring the work to Arrowe Park, several miles away in Upton.

Staff and patients have contacted Wallasey MP Angela Eagle to complain that a 90 day notice was served out of the blue telling them that clinics where moving to Arrowe Park.

Ms Eagle is concerned this will 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.

“As soon as my constituents raised this I contacted both Arrowe Park trust which runs the clinics and the Community NHS trust which owns the site to see how I can help resolve the situation and keep these clinics in Wallasey,” said Ms Eagle.

“Both organisations are working together to reduce costs, but this is directly a result of Tory cuts to the NHS, putting a newly rebuilt facility at risk.  It just shows that the NHS is not safe in David Cameron’s 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: “Given our current financial challenges, we have been reviewing the costs associated with providing outpatient clinics at Victoria Central Health Centre in Wallasey.

“As most of our clinical space at this location is rented through Wirral Community NHS Trust, talks at reducing costs with our landlord and Wirral Clinical Commissioning Group are ongoing.”