Plans to tackle waiting times at Carlisle’s A&E department and offer an improved service to patients at the city’s Cumberland Infirmary have been given the go-ahead.
The health trust which runs the hospital wants to create an urgent treatment centre, next to the existing A&E department. Its outline proposals have been approved by Cumberland Council.
The North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust said the new centre was driven out of the need for the service and to deal with increasing waiting times and use of A&E department and it was considered that it would significantly improve health services for north Cumbria.
A final design for the centre has not been submitted to the council for approval, but it is thought that it would be a single-storey building with 12 consultation rooms, waiting areas for children and adults and appropriate rest and storage areas.
It would be built to the east of the Grade II-listed Doctor’s Residence, formerly known as Crozier Lodge, which was built in the 1820s.
