White Young Green report into hospital sites

Last year Copeland Council and Westlakes Renaissance commissioned the consulting firm White Young Green to report on the merits of two possible sites in Whitehaven for the new hospital in West Cumbria which had been promised.

One was the existing West Cumberland Hospital site, the other was at the Ginns.

White Young Green have now produced a report which was presented to councillors this week. The full report can be read here on the Copeland Council website. You can download it if you have a good enough internet connection, but be aware that it's a rather large file: if comes as a PDF for Acrobat to read and is about 27 Megabytes !

Since the report was commissioned it has become clear that the Trusts may have no option but to stick with the existing West Cumberland Hospital site. (See previous post on this blog) However, the White Young Green report is interesting because it does make a strong case for retaining the hospital in Whitehaven. The summary of Key Points made by the report reads as follows:

SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS

Strategic Context

* Cumbria Health statistics and future demographic change emphasise the need for a new health delivery model designed to meet future need in Cumbria

* Cumbria Health services require substantial restructuring to support closer to home delivery of the service

* Any new Acute hospital, and services, need to be fully accessible to the West Cumbria community

Site Considerations

Accessibility
· Equally accessible in travel time from north and south of the defined North Cumbria area and well placed to service urban and rural communities

· Equidistant in relation to coverage of communities by acute hospitals at Carlisle, Barrow and Kendal
· Meets the needs of emergency services
· The potential for maximising available public transport to the site
· Good road infrastructure to support patients/visitors/staff and emergency services for the hospital and wider health campus requirements

Site development
· Flexible development space to accommodate 270 bed hospital and changing demands on health services
· Sufficient space to accommodate car parking for patients/visitors/staff
· Additional land capacity to support health campus development

Fit with service delivery model
· Strategic opportunities for the hospital to align with partners to support integrated health services for local communities
· The location has flexible considerations to support changing services
· Enhances current and future patient flows
· Enables service dependencies to be achieved

Socially acceptable
· Consideration of the impact on the local communities and residents living within the immediate area

Regeneration
· Supports wider economic and regeneration principles of the Energy Coast Masterplan
· Aligns partnering opportunities in relation to education, research and development