Single “preferred” options now exist for each of the new-build locations – although other potential sites have not been ruled out
Lancashire NHS leaders have identified the two sites where they want the new Royal Preston Hospital and Royal Lancaster Infirmary to be built, the Local Democracy Reporting Service can reveal.
He added: “I think it’s fair to say that we have preferred sites, but that doesn’t mean that we won’t still be exploring other[s]…depending on whether [the desired locations] are available or not. The roadshow event saw health minister Lord Nick Markham spend several hours at the Sharoe Green Lane site, speaking to staff and patients and being shown the reality of working in and being cared for in its buildings – some of which were described in the bid for government funding as being in a state of “serious dilapidation”. Q&A sessions were also held with patients, NHS leaders, politicians and other interested parties.
Asked by the LDRS what the purpose of the visit had been when the Lancashire and South Cumbria region had already persuaded Whitehall to part with the cash needed to build the two new facilities, Jerry Hawker said that it was important to “make the new hospitals programme real for everybody”. After Wednesday’s ministerial visit, he told the LDRS that the region had been given “very clear indications now regarding the capital investment that will go into the hospitals”.
Jerry Hawker came under pressure from councillors on Lancashire County Council’s health scrutiny committee last month over the standardised buildings that the government is expected to roll out to those areas where it has approved new hospital facilities over the next ten years. “So generally speaking, we’re saying that 70 or 80 percent of it will be a common, standard design, but then we will flex it to the local needs of the Lancashire and South Cumbria population – whether that just be the aesthetics of its appearance or the design of some of the services themselves. I think it’s a great balance between the two,” Mr. Hawker said.
‘IT’S NOT ALL BAD AT THE ROYAL PRESTON’ The soon-to-depart boss of the trust that runs the Royal Preston says that staff are invigorated by the prospect of a brand new hospital – even if it is ten years away from opening its doors. “Some of the facilities…are outstanding – our critical care unit [opened in 2020], for instance. But we do know that the ward block and, particularly, the front end [of the hospital], around A&E, are not fit for purpose.”
The 62-year-old also looked forward to a time – long after his impending retirement from the NHS this autumn – when the new Royal Preston can act as a magnet for jobs in research and development and biomedical services. TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY VISION FOR ROYAL LANCASTER The innovative ways in which the trust that runs the Royal Lancaster Infirmary works will help attract and retain staff while they await the arrival of a brand new hospital in the next ten years, its chief executive believes.
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