MULTI-million pound proposals designed to shape the future of Wirral’s two major hospitals will be open to widespread staff and public scrutiny in the coming weeks.

NHS Wirral's "Treating You Well Into The Future" initiative is intended to ensure Arrowe Park and Clatterbridge hospitals can guarantee continued quality patient care and service.

The hospital trust stressed proposed measures did not involve cutting services or costs nor the closure of Clatterbridge Hospital.

A trust statement said: “On the contrary, the level of investment needed to develop the proposals would be between £12.8m and £28m.”

A major review has been carried out of how and where services were provided at the two hospitals.

The trust says this showed the need to make significant changes to the location of some services.

The statement explained: “For the past six months we have been discussing the shape and location of existing services and exploring options for change with our doctors, nurses and other clinical staff.

“Far from reducing the services we provide, these proposals are about helping us not only to improve the patients’ experience of our hospitals, but also to make the most effective and efficient use of both sites.”

The consultation documents set out the reasons why the trust needs to make some service changes.

They range from clinical and quality issues – the trust’s top priority – to estates and financial considerations.

Trust chief executive Len Richards said: “We want our patients to have a positive experience of our hospitals, which means we need to have the right services in the right place so that we can provide services in a safe, comfortable environment that is fit for purpose and enables our patients to maintain their privacy and dignity.”

He added: “All the options we are proposing will strengthen the future for Arrowe Park and Clatterbridge Hospitals and put them in the strongest possible positions to meet the needs and wishes of our patients both now and in the years to come.”

Responses to the initiative should be received by the trust not later than June 13.

Copies of the documents will be available in local authority one-stop shops, libraries and doctors’ surgeries.

The results of the programme and any changes to services will be revealed in July.

The Wirral trust is one of the biggest and busiest in the North west, serving a population of 400,000 across the borough, Ellesmere Port and Neston with a staff of 5,600.

It operates from four sites – Arrowe Park, Clatterbridge, Victoria Central Health Centre, Wallasey and St Catherine’s Community Hospital, Tranmere.