Funding for a new £12 million Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC) at the Cumberland Infirmary has been approved with hopes for it to open at the end of 2025.
North Cumbria Integrated Care (NCIC) has received funding for the new centre which will make a difference for patients accessing urgent care services in Carlisle.
The UTC will be built next to the existing A&E department and will provide 12 new clinic rooms with a separate waiting area for children and adults.
Work will start in the new year and NCIC anticipates it will open at the end of 2025.
READ MORE: Reserved matters application for centre at Carlisle hospital submitted
It is hoped that it will ease the pressures at the infirmary's emergency department.
Mike Rickards, consultant in emergency medicine at North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are delighted to have been awarded funding for the UTC in Carlisle. It will make a real difference to our patients.
“Opening the UTC 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."
The A&E department at the Cumberland Infirmary was built with capacity for 30,000 attendances per year, last year more than two and a half times that figure visited the department.
As a result, there are often difficulties with overcrowding and privacy for patients.
Patients who need to use A&E and the UTC will enter through the same route and will be directed to the correct service after they have been assessed.
“We know our patients want as smooth a journey as possible when receiving treatment and urgent care services help ensure this is the case," he added.
“The centres will also help keep our emergency care departments free for what they are there for – emergencies.”
Cumbria Health will also be located in the UTC to further support access to the right services for patients.
It has been temporarily relocated from A&E to the ground floor of the infirmary to free up space.
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