SOUTHPORT Hospital is selling off its silver.
The Trust is facing an £8m deficit and rather than lose jobs or services, it will bring in some much-needed cash by allowing 170 homes to be built on six acres of its land at Town Lane.
It’s a bold move, which many will congratulate - new homes are needed in Southport, especially for lower paid and key workers, and this will help solve some of the shortage. It will also swell the coffers, to the relief of staff.
Some however will worry that losing the land could restrict any future growth of services of site. Others may also question whether, in an ideal world, the land could have been used for building new parking space in an area where there are growing problems over where people leave their cars. The Trust’s promise to review parking this Summer is certainly a welcome move in this area.
Over the past few years the Trust has faced the problem of tackling huge budget deficits on more than one occasion, a situation which has led to continued stress for both managers and frontline staff.
This government promised huge investment in health when it was first elected back in 1997 - when Southport & Ormskirk Hospital Trust has to start selling off its own land as the only way of balancing its books, those promises are now starting to sound rather hollow.
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