The plan will deliver an increase of up to 197 hospital beds, 15 new operating theatres, five new endoscopy suites, and ten additional outpatient areas. More than three-quarters of hospital equipment will also be replaced.

The package of improvements will see the outdated and overcrowded facilities at three hospitals - St Helens, Newton and Whiston - brought into the 21st century through a mix of new buildings and extensive refurbishment. This will include the creation of one of the country's largest diagnostic and treatment centres, a healthcare facility designed to provide planned day care and one stop services.

Hospital chiefs add that it will also spell the end of some of the oldest temporary accommodation in the NHS, built as a stopgap measure 60 years ago to house war casualties... but still in use at Whiston Hospital today.

It is hoped that all these improvements will produce major benefits to patient care, resulting in reduction in waiting times and waiting lists, easing the pressure on the A&E unit, eliminating the need to postpone routine operations.

In the community, there will be the development of primary care resource centres in four key locations - including St Helens where the Millennium Centre is being substantially extended.