West Cumberland Hospital is set to get a new entrance as part of its £40 million redevelopment.
The current main entrance to the hospital will be permanently moved to the Homewood Road side of the building on Wednesday May 29.
It is hoped the new entrance will provide staff, patients and visitors with a more modern and welcoming area as well as a brand new, contemporary reception desk located next to the current coffee shop in the main atrium.
In the short term, WH Smith will remain in its current location. However, it will move to its permanent new location, also in the atrium, in June.
There will also be a significant change to the road layout at the hospital site, and all patients, visitors and staff are being asked to familiarise themselves with the new routes before arriving at the hospital.
The current exit point will also be closed and a new one will be opened adjacent to the current entry point off Homewood Road. The ring road will continue to be one way.
A short-term change to parking will also go ahead as work begins to create the addition of approximately 40 parking spaces.
Parking will no longer be available outside the current main entrance – but there will be disabled parking spaces in front of the new main entrance.
The foot path from the tiered car park at the bottom of the site to the main entrance will also be closed while work goes ahead.
The public are also asked that when entering the hospital from the tiered car park to use the entrance adjacent to Women’s Outpatients and make their way internally through the hospital.
Dean Oliver, director of performance, planning and strategy for NCIC said: “We are delighted that the new main entrance has now reached completion on schedule.
“The new main entrance is a great upgrade to the site, befitting of the hospital itself. This is yet another milestone the project has reached, and we look forward to the opening of our phase 2 development in July this year.”
The closing of the old main entrance marks phase two of the redevelopment at the hospital entering the final stages.
The overall redevelopment includes a new Children and Young People’s ward, a care of the elderly and general medicine ward, a specialist palliative care ward and a stroke and rehabilitation ward which are due to move to their new accommodation from July 22 onwards.
