Last updated at 19:52, Thursday, 26 April 2012

Work on Cockermouth’s new £11 million hospital will start soon.

Cockermouth Hospital League of Friends last Friday signed over ownership of the land next to the Isel Road hospital to NHS Cumbria, the primary care trust.

It means that building work on the hospital can go ahead. A spokesman for NHS Cumbria said that a start date for the rebuild would be announced imminently.

Stephen Coates, the league’s vice president, said: “It is nine years since we marched through the town to protest at the closure of the hospitals so it will be good for the town to have the new hospital as well as the surgeries moving in there as well.”

In 2006 plans were announced to close local cottage hospitals but in 2008, following public protests, an announcement was made to develop rather than close the hospitals.

The new hospital will be built on land next to the current Isel Road site, which is more than 100 years old. It will combine GP and community hospital services and the trust said it hoped work will be finished by next autumn.

A partnership will also help to reduce disruption for patients attending the hospital during the work.

NHS Cumbria and Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, which run the hospital, are working with the Centre for the Third Age to develop new community transport arrangements.

The existing car park will be closed to the public during construction and a temporary car park will be created at the back of the hospital from July for patients.

From May 8 there will be a park and ride service from Mitchell’s Lakeland Livestock Centre every 30 minutes from 8.30am to 5pm.

First published at 19:19, Thursday, 26 April 2012
Published by http://www.timesandstar.co.uk