A NEW £12 million Urgent Treatment Centre at a Carlisle hospital hopes to be open by the end of the year.
It follows after planning permission for the new centre at the Cumberland Infirmary was approved on Friday (January 10), with all conditions discharged following the receipt of outline planning permission in September 2024.
The single-storey centre, which will have 12 consultation rooms, will be built next to the existing A&E department, with work due to start soon.
It will have 12 new clinic rooms with a separate waiting area for children and adults.
Patients who need to use the Emergency Department and the Urgent Treatment Centre will enter through the same route and be directed to the right service for their needs when they are assessed.
It is hoped that it will ease the pressures at the infirmary’s emergency department.
Dr Mike Rickards, consultant in emergency medicine at North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are delighted to have planning approval for the UTC.
“It will make a real difference to our patients and now that planning permission has been granted we can start building.
“Patients and visitors will notice some changes in the coming weeks as building work starts and machinery moves onto the site.
“It’s an exciting time to see these changes happening and they will improve A&E wait times and make a difference to the healthcare of our patients.”