EMPTY shops in Runcorn Shopping City could be used to provide NHS services under plans to improve patient access.

The plans would see several services move from Halton Hospital to Shopping City, including audiology, dietetics and ophthalmology, allowing other departments at the hospital to expand.

Dietetic services currently based at St Paul’s Health Centre in Runcorn would also move, and additional ophthalmic services that are now only available at Warrington Hospital would be offered at Shopping City.

Warrington and Halton Hospital Trust said the plans would improve patient access to these services by moving them to a “more convenient” location.

A report outlining the plans ahead of a meeting of Halton Council’s Health Policy and Performance Board on November 24 added: “The proposed expansion and/or relocation of these services delivered in a non-hospital setting limits the risk of hospital acquired infection, critical in the Covid-era.”

It is also hoped the relocation of services will increase footfall in the Shopping City, with 200 patients per week using Halton’s ophthalmic services alone. This could help breathe new life into the run-down shopping centre.

The proposals will be subject to a public consultation expected to be held in early 2021.

The relocation of these services is part of a wider plan to overhaul Halton Hospital, making it Warrington and Halton’s dedicated site for non-urgent procedures.

At its meeting on November 24, the board will also receive an update on Halton Hospital’s bid for £40 million from the NHS to fund a complete redevelopment of the hospital.

Plans for the hospital’s regeneration have been in the works since at least 2018, but two previous bids for funding have since been rejected.

Under the proposals, the existing hospital building, in Runcorn, would be demolished and the services moved to an extension added to the Cheshire and Merseyside Treatment Centre.

The rest of the site would be redeveloped as a ‘hospital and wellbeing campus’ featuring a nursing home, nursery, rehabilitation centre, community centre, wellness centre, and multi-generational housing, all interspersed with communal areas such as pet parks, gardens, woodland walks and cycle paths.

In April this year, health minister Edward Argar said he would meet Weaver Vale MP Mike Amesbury to discuss the plans, raising hopes that the hospital’s next bid for funding would be successful.