\n ONE of my first visits after being elected was to Warrington A&E.\n<\/p>\n
\n You don\u2019t need to be a doctor, nurse or healthcare worker to see the pressure it\u2019s under.\n<\/p>\n
\n Staff trying their best.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ambulances queueing.\n<\/p>\n
\n Patients waiting in corridors, anxious and exhausted.\n<\/p>\n
\n The department was built 50 years ago for a much smaller population.\n<\/p>\n
\n Today, it regularly cares for well over 100 people.\n<\/p>\n
\n Since becoming your MP, A&E waiting times have been among the issues I\u2019m contacted about most.\n<\/p>\n
\n People are worried.\n<\/p>\n
\n They\u2019re frustrated.\n<\/p>\n
\n And they\u2019re right to expect better.\n<\/p>\n
\n In January, Warrington was recorded as the sixth worst hospital in the country for waits over 12 hours in A&E.\n<\/p>\n
\n More than half of patients were waiting over four hours.\n<\/p>\n
\n When you\u2019re worried about your health, A&E feels like the only option.\n<\/p>\n
\n And here in Warrington, for many urgent problems, it is.\n<\/p>\n
\n But it doesn\u2019t have to be that way.\n<\/p>\n
\n That\u2019s why I\u2019ve been working with the NHS and ministers to bring forward a proposal for a new Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC).\n<\/p>\n
\n A UTC provides medical help when it\u2019s not a life-threatening emergency.\n<\/p>\n
\n It treats many of the problems people currently take to A&E because there\u2019s nowhere else to go.\n<\/p>\n
\n Broken bones.\n<\/p>\n
\n Minor injuries.\n<\/p>\n
\n Sprains.\n<\/p>\n
\n Cuts and burns.\n<\/p>\n
\n Eye or skin infections.\n<\/p>\n
\n A child with a fever who needs checking over.\n<\/p>\n
\n These are not trivial concerns.\n<\/p>\n
\n But they don\u2019t require the full resources of an emergency department built for heart attacks, strokes and major trauma.\n<\/p>\n
\n Around 60 Warrington residents a day travel outside the borough for this kind of care.\n<\/p>\n
\n Others sit in A&E because we don\u2019t have another option.\n<\/p>\n
\n That means A&E is trying to be everything at once, emergency department and urgent care clinic.\n<\/p>\n
\n An UTC could treat around 130 patients a day.\n<\/p>\n
\n It would free up capacity so A&E can focus on the most serious cases and reduce waiting times.\n<\/p>\n
\n In simple terms, it means the right care, in the right place, at the right time.\n<\/p>\n
\n I know many residents want to see a completely new hospital.\n<\/p>\n
\n Do I support the principle of a new hospital?\n<\/p>\n
\n Absolutely.\n<\/p>\n
\n But it\u2019s a complex, billion-pound, multi-year project.\n<\/p>\n
\n Warrington was never included in the previous Government\u2019s programme and big change doesn\u2019t happen overnight.\n<\/p>\n
\n It happens step by step.\n<\/p>\n
\n Planned properly.\n<\/p>\n
\n Funded properly.\n<\/p>\n
\n Delivered properly.\n<\/p>\n
\n That\u2019s why I\u2019ve been working on a phased plan with our local NHS.\n<\/p>\n
\n Phase One: An Urgent Treatment Centre tackling immediate pressure.\n<\/p>\n
\n Phase Two: New non-urgent facility and diagnostics so more care happens outside the hospital.\n<\/p>\n
\n Phase Three: Phased redevelopment of the hospital itself, modern facilities built in stages keeping services running while we transition to something fit for our town and its growing population.\n<\/p>\n
\n It\u2019s a pragmatic approach.\n<\/p>\n
\n Acting now to ease pressure, while putting Warrington in the strongest possible position for future investment.\n<\/p>\n
\n As ever, if constituents in Warrington South would like to get in touch, request a visit, or arrange a surgery appointment, you can do so at sarahhall.co.uk\/contact.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ONE of my first visits after being elected was to Warrington A&E. You don\u2019t need to be a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-440089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}