OFFICIALS has announced that Phase 2 of the West Cumberland Hospital redevelopment is now complete. 

Patients and staff have been moving into the new part of the site which is part of a £40 million redevelopment. 

The new part of the site consists of the Copeland Ward, the Loweswater Suite for Palliative Care, the stroke rehabilitation unit, and wards for elderly and children's care. 

The hospital team, patients, and equipment have been gradually moving into the new unit over the past week. 

“I can’t believe the difference” said one patient who had moved over from old to new on Thursday morning. Thomas Howlett of Whitehaven said he was “Really impressed” and his single, en-suite room was “much more private and quieter” compared to the open plan ward he had moved from. Thomas described the ward as ‘Beautiful”.

On Thursday, September 26, the doors of the old Stroke Rehabilitation ward closed for the final time, bringing the four-year project to a close.

Pharmacy teams stocked new ward areas with required medication, IT teams were moving and setting up kits, and porters got to work moving furniture and equipment before Nurses and Health Care Assistants from across NCIC pitched in to move patients as well as deliver patient care.

Jill Foster, executive chief nurse at NCIC said: “This is the hospital the patients and staff deserve, they’ve waited a long time for this and I think we can all agree, it was worth the wait.

"To be able to deliver patient care modern facilities such as these will make a huge difference to our patients and staff. I’d like to say well done to everyone who has helped this last week, it’s not an easy task to juggle the day job with moving into a new build, but you have done it."