HALTON MP Derek Twigg fears that NHS bosses who plan and buy health services for the borough’s 126,000 patients are planning to merge with Warrington.

He expressed his concern after Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt failed to rule out a merger between Halton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Warrington CCG.

Mr Twigg said: “In meetings with Halton CCG they have told me how they are moving towards greater collaboration with Warrington but not other neighbouring CCGs.

“My instinct is that something will be on the cards at some point.

“I am opposed to any such move. We don’t want to be swallowed up by a larger organisation.

“I have lived through a number of reorganisations and know you have to keep a close eye on these things.”

Mr Twigg believes it would be more beneficial for Halton to liaise with St Helens and Knowsley as well.

“I just think it is wrong to only be working with Warrington.”

Halton Council leader Cllr Rob Polhill said: “We do not want this merger. We work very closely together with Halton CCG and have led the way in many partnership projects.”

In a joint statement Simon Banks, chief officer at NHS Halton CCG and Dr Andrew Davies, chief clinical officer at NHS Warrington CCG said: “Halton and Warrington CCGs have a long established working relationship and already have some informal and formal sharing arrangements.

“We can confirm that at this point in time there are no plans to merge the two CCGs. “That said, there may be more opportunities to work together more closely, share our expertise, making best use of the resources we have and where possible do things once.

“Working together is completely different to a merger. Both organisations will retain their sovereignty as individual, separate organisations.”

Nationally, they said, the NHS is facing significant pressures.

They added: “To ‘future proof’ the NHS we know and value, we must adopt a common-sense approach to do more with the same and collaborate where appropriate for the best outcomes.

“As NHS leaders we have a responsibility to create a sustainable future for our organisations, our staff and the people.”