NURSES at Halton Hospital have started a campaign to stop emergency operations being transferred to Warrington.

Nurse Anne Roberts said: "We want our intensive care unit open and we want to return to our on call system and for the people of this district to have emergency services.

"All the staff are 100 per cent behind this petition - we have had enough.

"Talking won't work any more. We will lose personnel, the skills base will be lost at Halton, it will never get back to full strength.

"I've had patients saying 'why are we being sent to Warrington'?

"People are going to have to stand up and be counted. We have drawn up a petition."

Celia Johnson, senior staff nurse, said: "It's a bad idea. I know it works in some places but that doesn't mean we should follow suit when we have good emergency services here."

Former ambulance driver and cancer patient Gerry Richards, said: "I am here to support the staff, they are absolutely brilliant, they have great consultants and excellent nurses.

"They train lots of doctors here who go on to other things - it's a teaching hospital in it's infancy. I would like to see it go that way."

Linda Waldon, a senior nurse, said: "I am worried. I don't feel we are giving a proper service to the people of Runcorn.

"We are not getting 999 calls and the on call team is going to go, and if they go, the skills and the pay are lost and staff will move on."

Nurse Maryszka Kujawimski said: "I am concerned, as a member of the community and a mum with young children, because I don't think the public are aware of what's going on.

"In an emergency, time is vital. It's fine if you live in Warrington but if you live in Runcorn..."

North Cheshire Hospitals Trust said: "Following a comprehensive public consultation in Runcorn and Widnes, all patients referred for emergency surgery by their GP have been admitted to Warrington Hospital since April."

Ian Dalton, chief executive, said: "Our consultant surgeons believe that this will result in even better care for emergency surgical patients and they have the support of local GPs in making this change.

"By concentrating emergency surgical services onto the Warrington site it has made it possible to create a protected environment for planned surgery at Halton Hospital. This means less operations will be cancelled due to pressure from emergency admissions.

"This change only affects GP referrals for surgery (approximately four patients per day) as emergency ambulance admissions have always been admitted to Warrington Hospital.

"Having an operation cancelled at short notice can be a stressful experience for a patient and reducing the number on cancellations is an important priority for the trust.

"My senior doctors and I very strongly believe that these changes will be good for emergency and planned surgical patients and the future of Halton General Hospital."

The trust also said the key roles for Halton in the future would be general medicine and surgery.