A LOCAL councillor is calling on the local health authority to re-open a fully operational 24-hour accident and emergency department at St Helens Hospital following news that the NHS is to receive extra Government funding.

St Helens and Knowsley Hospitals (NHS) Trust received £550,000 to modernise A & E facilities in Whiston Hospital but some of the money will also be used for St Helens Hospital's Minor Injuries Unit, which deals with some minor emergency and non-emergency cases between the hours of 9am and 5pm, seven days a week.

John Beirne, Liberal Democrat councillor for Marshalls Cross, has written to Ken Sanderson, the hospital trust's chief executive, calling for the unit to extend its hours and take major emergency cases back for the use of St Helens residents. He told the Star: "A town the size of St Helens should not be without an A & E department, especially with Whiston Hospital having to keep patients waiting hours upon hours now that Broad Green A & E department has also closed.

"One mother and child waited for more than seven hours for treatment on a busy weekend and this should not be happening. Now that the Government is handing out money, we want it spent on St Helens Hospital creating facilities the town's people need, not kept in the management trust coffers."

Councillor Beirne is now urging local residents to follow his lead and write their own letters to Mr Sanderson, calling for the unit to extend its hours.

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