MP Rosie Cooper has again been contacted by diabetic patients concerned at still being forced to travel to Aintree Hospital for their eye screening, amid reports of lengthy waiting lists.

The issue was first raised in October when a constituent contacted MP Rosie concerned by the move of the Diabetic Eye Screening Programme (DESP) to Aintree.

Having corresponded with NHS England, Rosie was informed that there were IT issues and the DESP aims to resume clinics at Ormskirk by the end of December 2018.

Having missed that target, Rosie received a further update that patients will continue to attend screening appointments at Aintree until at least the end of February. Whilst the IT issues have been resolved, there now appears to be other problems.

MP Rosie has again taken up the issue with NHS England after being told that there is a huge backlog of West Lancashire residents waiting for tests at Aintree.

This afternoon, she told QLocal: "From IT issues that were expected to be resolved in December to having problems over the lease in January, and now in late April we still don’t have the screening in Ormskirk, it is clear that the DESP transfer to Bickerstaffe House on the Ormskirk Hospital site has been poorly planned and unsatisfactory.

“In the light of poor bus services and the fact that they cannot drive after the eye procedure, patients are understandably concerned and angry about the extra costs, inconvenience and extra distance they have to travel to get to Aintree for their eye screening, when it could be provided in Ormskirk.

“I have written to NHS England’s Director of Commissioning Operations and asked for an explanation about why the programme is still operating out of Aintree Hospital and not as promised in Ormskirk.”

UPDATED NHS comment: A spokesperson for NHS England and NHS Improvement, North West, said: “We are pleased to confirm that the diabetic eye screening programme for the people of West Lancashire has now been up and running in its new location for more than a week. We are assured by local health and care partners that every patient that chose to be seen at Aintree has now been seen, and patients who opted to wait until the service transfer was complete, will now be invited to Ormskirk.”