West Cumberland Hospital to stay on current site

The Whitehaven News reports a decision by the local NHS Trust Board that West Cumberland Hospital will remain on its current site and be redeveloped.

The report says that the hospital "will be made up of a mixture of new buildings as well as extensively refurbishing current ones.

Health chiefs ruled that it would not be a complete new build hospital as that would cost in excess of £50 million over the maximum available funding of £100million.

The decision was made at the board meeting of the North Cumbria University Hospitals Trust today.

Professional experts brought in to look at what could be provided within the maximum budget of £100million concluded that a complete new build would require a significant reduction in service provision compared with Closer to Home.

Therefore, in a report to the board, EC Harris consultancy recommended that the Trust should look at re-developing the existing site, in order to provide a 220-bed hospital (with potential to increase to 250 if required).

They said that priority for the main areas of spend should be given to the hi-tech areas of the hospital such as operating theatres, ITU, A&E and diagnostics.
Redeveloping the existing hospital will enable the provision of modern, fit for purpose healthcare facilities in West Cumbria, they said."