Westmorland Hospital: Finance

(asked on 12th March 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to allocate funding for the improvement of services at Westmorland General Hospital.


Answered by
Edward Argar Portrait
Edward Argar
Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This question was answered on 17th March 2020

In October 2019, University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust was awarded £34 million funding to improve buildings and infrastructure. This includes at Westmorland General Hospital, where the volume of day surgery work will be increasing. Two new surgical operating theatres are being built, as well as a refurbishment of the existing operating theatres.

In addition the Helme Chase maternity unit will also undergo modernisation this year. Plans are still being developed but are likely to include relocating some clinical activity conveniently close to the main hospital entrance, and relocating some internal administrative departments and patient record areas within the hospital. Neither of these will affect the service offered to patients.

In 2019, the Government launched a new Health Infrastructure Plan which includes £100 million to support 21 major projects (covering 34 hospitals) develop their schemes to be delivered in a second phase of major hospital rebuilds (HIP2), as part of our plan to build 40 new hospitals over the next 10 years. This includes £5 million for University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust. This business case development will include review of service delivery and opportunities for improvements in infrastructure across the Morecambe Bay, including Westmorland General Hospital.

Future National Health Service capital funding will be provided for as part of the Department’s multi-year settlement at the next capital review.

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