Funding for a new £12m urgent treatment centre at Carlisle’s Cumberland Infirmary has been approved.
The centre is part of a longer term plan to improve access to urgent care services in Carlisle and ease pressures in A&E.
The current A&E department was built with capacity for 30,000 attendances each year.
Last year there were 78,300 attendances – more than two-and-a-half times its current capacity. It leads to overcrowding in the department and issues with privacy.
The new centre will be built next to the existing A&E department and will have 12 new clinic rooms with a separate waiting area for children and adults.
Patients who need to use A&E and the centre will enter through the same route and be directed to the right service for their needs when they are assessed.
Mike Rickards, consultant in emergency medicine at North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are delighted to have been awarded funding. It will make a real difference to our patients.
“Opening the centre will help ensure patients are seen in the right place at the right time by the correct clinician. The centre will also provide great support to the main Emergency Department by freeing up capacity for patients who are acutely unwell.
“We know our patients want as smooth a journey as possible when receiving treatment and urgent care services help ensure this is the case.
“The centres will also help keep our emergency care departments free for what they are there for – emergencies.”
Cumbria Health, which provides out of hours GP services will also be located in the centre once it is complete which means that patients will have seamless access to the right service.
Cumbria Health has been temporarily relocated from the emergency department to the ground floor of the Cumberland Infirmary to free up space in the meantime.
Work will start to build the new centre in the new year and it is expected it to be open by the end of 2025.
Carlisle MP Julie Minns said: “I am thrilled to see this vital funding has been approved, to help improve access to urgent care services in Carlisle.
“The new Labour Government is committed to rebuilding our NHS after 14 years of mismanagement, and Carlisle will benefit greatly from this investment in our health and wellbeing.”
