Patients are now a lot less likely to die at Southport and Ormskirk hospitals than they were previously.
Speaking at a council meeting last night, Councillor Terry Jones: "I know of a lot of elderly people - my dad was one of them - who will get into an ambulance and they'll say 'don't take me to Southport Hospital because I won't come out again'.
But Terry Hankin, medical director at Southport and Ormskirk Hospitals Trust, says an 'enormous amount of work' has gone into reducing the mortality rates at both sites.
He said: "In April 2018, you were much more likely to die if you came to Southport or Ormskirk hospitals than if you went to a benchmark hospital. And I mean significantly more likely.
"But since then we have had a significant sustained reduction in mortality.
"If you come to either hospital now, you are less likely to die than if you went to the average hospital ."
Mr Hankin said a number of new procedures, including zero tolerance of corridor care and 'no longer having ambulances queued UP outside', factored into the new figures.
The Trust's deputy chief executive, Therese Patten, also addressed the council's overview and scrutiny committee - and discussed the future of both hospital sites.
She said: " Southport is an old hospital and we have invested significant resources into the site. A ward refurbishment campaign costing just under a million pounds began on Monday.
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