Under-threat Clatterbridge Hospital ward to close within a month

Jan 31 2011 By Ben Schofield

 HOSPITAL bosses confirmed an under-threat ward in Wirral will close within a month.

Clatterbridge Hospital’s M2 ward, which is used to treat low risk patients having planned surgery, will close on February 25.

It is also believed  10 beds in the hospital’s M1 ward have also been mothballed.

It means the hospital, which is separate from Clatterbridge Oncology Centre, will have 25 fewer beds.

Wirral University Teaching Hospital Trust axed the beds as part of a £14.3m cost-cutting drive. Over the next three years, trust bosses there will have to find a total of £42m of savings.

A spokeswoman for the trust said: "Plans to reduce the number of in-patient beds at Clatterbridge Hospital have been confirmed and the trust will close Ward M2 (general surgery/ urology) by the end of Friday, February 25, 2011.

"These beds, used to treat low-risk patients having planned surgery, are under-occupied on a regular basis due to reducing lengths of stay and the trend towards treating more patients as day cases." The ward is normally closed to in-patients at weekends.

In-patients on M2 ward will be moved to M1 by February 25.