HOSPITALS across the Liverpool City Region have lost out on their share of millions worth of funding, after the Government granted more than half of its “largest capital investment programme in NHS history”  to wealthy  regions in the South, a council meeting was told.

Halton councillors expressed “bitter disappointment” after a £40 million bid for a new “state of the art” Merseyside and Cheshire treatment centre in one of the poorest areas of the country in Runcorn was rejected while Surrey – the UK’s richest county – was granted over £19 million to improve its health services.    

NHS England has named 40 hospitals and community centres that would receive a combined total of £760 million  to transform and modernise their health care provision, in what  Jeremy Hunt described as one of the “largest capital programmes in NHS history.”

However, councillors at a health and wellbeing meeting– who had been confident Halton’s bid for the new hospital would be successful – observed that only six health facilities across the entire north were granted any funding. None were in Merseyside or Cheshire, and only one  in the North West.

David Parr, chief executive of Halton Council, said 34 of the grants were given to hospitals “below Birmingham”, raising fresh concerns amongst councillors about the North-South divide in the face of growing budget cuts.

Cllr Tom McInerney, board member for children, young people and family, said: “I don’t always like to bring up the north-south divide, because at the end of the day there’s pockets of deprivation all over the country. But our current hospital has lost its sell by date. 

"This new one would regenerate that area (and) all we were asking for was £40 million to start it  up. 

“The vision was there. Yes we will carry on but it will be a huge challenge and I’m bitterly disappointed. They (the government) keep talking about the northern powerhouse but they don’t give us any money for it.

“It gets to the nub of what this Government does. They aren’t making decisions based on what we put forward as a borough. They are doing it on a political basis, based on the fact that in the South, that’s where most of their votes are.”

Council leader Rob Polhill added the decision was “typical” of the Government, whilst health and wellbeing Cllr Marie Wright said she was “really sad and disappointed” by the decision, but “sadly not surprised.”

The bid for a new Halton hospital  was submitted after NHS England approved plans for a health and wellbeing campus complete with a gym and a swimming pool to be developed  in Halton Lea in Runcorn- an area which is in the top 1 per cent of deprivation in the country.

The campus, which included plans for a nursery and care home to be built side by side, was at the forefront of Halton’s Healthy New Town project- a government initiative designed  to improve the health and wellbeing of  communities through development and regeneration.

Halton was one of only 10 sites chosen by NHS England in the UK to trial the New Town project, specifically  because of the high levels of health deprivation in some areas of the borough.

Of those 10, It was  the only site which included plans for a new hospital to be built.

Whilst Halton lost out on a share of the funding, Lancashire was the only county in the north-west to receive  any money (£31.2 million).

Hospitals in West Yorkshire received four separate grants between £1.5 million and £15 million, whilst Humber, Coast and Vale revived £7.5 million.

In the south, Gloucestershire received £39.5 million,  Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire were given  a combined total of £2 million, Kent and Medway received 5 separate bids totalling between £1 million and £8.5million, East Surrey and Sussex received £19.5 million, and the Surrey Heartlands received £0.5 million.

At the health and wellbeing meeting, councillors agreed to “prove Jeremy Hunt wrong” and find an alternative way to fund the hospital campus- which is expected to cost at least £53 million to build.

Chief executive Mr Parr said: “The lack of funding will be a huge challenge for all of us but we’ve never been short of responding to challenges.

“Just because that funding stream hasn’t come doesn’t mean that this isn’t a very important initiative for our community in Halton

“Of course it will be tougher, it’s always tougher when the money is hard to find. But we’re not short of hard working people in Halton.”

In a joint statement, MPs for Weaver Vale and Halton Mike Amesbury and Derek Twigg said they were seeking an urgent meeting with Jeremy Hunt to discuss the matter.