MEMBERS of a health 'watchdog' squad are calling for a new hospital for acute and emergency care to be built on a brownfield site in the area.

Chief officer of St Helens & Knowsley Community Health Council, Tony Richards, said: "For almost 20 years the CHC has been fighting for equitable health funding for the district, especially the provision of a new District General Hospital. This a feature of every other district in the region, but has been denied to St Helens & Knowsley.

"The issue has been raised by the CHC at every level over many years, but the response has been very disappointing. Knowsley ranks the second most deprived borough out of the 350 districts in the country and while revenue funding is now on a more equitable basis, it was still felt that there was need for major capital funding to provide a new acute and emergency hospital."

The CHC believes that new facilities could be built quickly and without the serious disruption to existing facilities that would be caused by further development of the current hospitals, which would lead to them becoming building sites for a period of at least 10 years.

CHC member, Councillor Tom Fearns, said: " If all the money wasted on the Millennium Dome had been channelled into health services, then areas such as St Helens and Knowsley would have been able to have had a new hospital without having to fight for the funding."