Clitheroe's £7m hospital plan unveiled (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Clitheroe's £7m hospital plan unveiled

9:08am Thursday 25th October 2012 in News By Catherine Pye, Health reporter

DETAILED plans for Clitheroe’s new £7million Community Hospital have been revealed at a public meeting.

Sixty people attended the meeting in Clitheroe Town Hall to discuss the proposals for a 4,500 square metre site adjacant to the current facility in Chatburn Road.

Jacqueline Hadwen, of the East Lancashire Building Parnership — an association of NHS East Lancashire and constructors the Eric Wright Group — said it had taken 18 months to come up with a design that would be submitted to Ribble Valley planners by December.

Ms Hadwen said changes were needed to make the hospital more flexible for the future needs of the community and because of a range of problems at the current site, including a backlog of main-tenance of £2.6million.

She said: “We need a modern facility to take health care forward.”

The new building will be two storeys and will have a single point of entry that will lead on to one ‘street’, and will have four wings. As in the current building, it will have 33 beds — 17 of which will have ensuites, and there will be four bays of four beds.

On the ground floor there will be eight out-patient consultation rooms, compared to the current three.

Ms Hadwen said: “At the moment, there will be no change from what is currently offered. There is flexibility in this building for future uses such as respite care and palliative care.” The meeting was told that there will be scope to extend the wings to provide more beds if needed, but no there are no plans to build upwards.

If planning permission is granted by the end of December, it is hoped that construction will start immediately, and the new hospital will be operational by the end of summer 2014.