£33 Million to Move What We Asked Them to Keep

9 July 2026 · Save Ormskirk Children's A&E campaign

The NHS is spending £33 million to move our children's A&E eight miles away — after 7,840 of us told them to keep it where it is.

Thirty-three million pounds. That's what it costs to move our children's A&E from Ormskirk to Southport. Not to improve it. Not to extend its hours. To move it eight miles further from our kids.

Let's be clear about what's happening. Ormskirk Hospital is not closing. The children's A&E is being moved to Southport Hospital, at a cost of £33 million, over a minimum of three years, targeted for 2029. That's the decision a joint NHS committee signed off on 13 March 2026 — after a 13-week public consultation in which more than 7,840 of us responded, and keeping the children's A&E at Ormskirk was the most popular option.

What £33 million actually buys

Here's the part that stings. £33 million is serious money in today's NHS.

A newly qualified nurse starts on £32,073 a year. So £33 million would cover the starting salary of more than 1,000 nurses for a year. Instead, it's being spent relocating a service that already works — and that we told them, loudly and clearly, we wanted to keep.

And this is happening while the NHS in England faces a record £15.9 billion repair backlog across its buildings. Every capital pound is precious right now. This one is being spent moving our kids' emergency care further away.

"But the alternative cost more"

The NHS says the other option — moving adult A&E to Ormskirk and running the children's A&E 24 hours — would have cost £91 million and taken seven years. Fine. But notice what was never properly on the table: keeping both sites as they are was ruled out before the consultation even started, and Southport was named the "preferred option" before a single one of us was asked.

When you decide the answer first, the cheapest route to that answer isn't a saving. It's just the bill for ignoring us.

The people we don't blame

We love the doctors and nurses at Ormskirk. They've looked after our children for years, 8am to midnight, every single day. Our fight is not with them. It's with the decision-makers who ran a consultation, got an answer they didn't like, and spent £33 million going the other way.

What we're asking for

Lancashire County Council's health scrutiny committee voted unanimously, cross-party, to ask the Health Secretary to call this decision in. Our MP has asked for it to be reversed. That call-in request is still sitting unanswered.

So our ask is simple: the Health Secretary must formally call in this decision before a penny of the £33 million is spent. Sign the petition. Share this. Don't let them spend our money moving our kids' A&E away from our kids.

Sources: ITV News Granada, 13 March 2026 — joint ICB committee approved moving children's A&E to Southport at an estimated £33m over 3–5 years; the alternative option (adult A&E to Ormskirk, 24-hour children's A&E) was costed by the NHS at £91m over seven years.,NHS Employers, Agenda for Change pay scales 2026/27 — Band 5 (newly qualified nurse) starting salary £32,073 in England.,NHS England Digital, Estates Returns Information Collection (ERIC) 2024/25 — estimated cost to eradicate NHS maintenance backlog at a record £15.9 billion.

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