BLUEPRINT plans to close Sharoe Green Hospital and shift services to the Royal Preston and Chorley and South Ribble Hospital sites have been unveiled by health chiefs.

The Business Case document drawn up by health chiefs sets the agenda for concentrating the services currently provided at Sharoe Green onto the Royal Preston Hospital site.

In addition, the Trust plan to work in conjunction with Chorley and South Ribble Trust to utilise the capacity on the newly-extended Chorley Hospital site.

Under the transfer proposals a range of services currently provided at the Sharoe Green site will be taken over by the neighbouring Royal Preston Hospital.

These include the chest clinic and neurophysiology outpatients department and the relocation of the education and training facilities including a Post Graduate Medical Centre.

There are also plans to build a new Pharmacy Store and obstetrics and gynaecology departments including neonatal, ultrasound and theatres.

And the proposed model includes facilities for an elderly rehabilitation and stroke rehabilitation building provided as a stand alone unit on the RPH site.

The major changes culminate in a review of services in Central Lancashire and follow recommendations by Professor Sir Leslie Turnberg under the government's White Paper 'The New NHS'.

Under the proposals the Young Disabled Unit based in Sharoe Green House, on the edge of the hospital site, will remain as a stand alone unit. Health bosses are also considering the future of the Mental Illness Unit based at RPH and looking at schemes to utilise the Avondale Unit and to provide a new Acute Mental Illness Unit.

The report recommended that the closure of the Sharoe Green site would cut costs, improve access to services and create a more patient-focused environment. It states: "The movement of services from Sharoe Green is central to our aim to provide modern facilities which will exist into the next millennium."

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