Plans for a new £15 million endoscopy unit at Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle have been submitted to Cumberland Council.
North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust secured the funding for the building in Newtown Road in October from NHS England.
The site, which is currently used for car parking and is landscaped, covers an area of 0.28 hectares. According to the application 21 parking spaces would be lost because of the development.
The new building will be linked to the main hospital and next to the Cancer Centre.
The Cumberland Infirmary currently has only one endoscopy room which is of a suitable size and two smaller rooms that do not meet national accreditation standards.
The new build will include five clinical rooms as well as an outpatients area. The expansion of the service also means patients currently travelling to Newcastle for a procedure can be seen in Carlisle and more patients can be seen in a faster time from referral.
According to a planning statement, constraints around the site informed its design, including:
- Challenging topography with entry being at the lower ground-floor level and connectivity to the main hospital through the existing corridor link;
- An existing quiet garden and car parking to be demolished, removing green space from the external hospital environment;
- Proximity of the Cancer Centre and the main hospital to the north and how this building connects and relates with the new endoscopy build.
The report said: “The site analysis indicated that the levels on the site could be used to provide a link for inpatients from the existing lower ground corridor with this same level becoming the ground floor of the new building and this forming the entrance level for outpatients from the opposite end of the building, from there parking to the south.”
