New Cockermouth Hospital & Health Centre
Robertson Ltd, Site Offices, Cockermouth Cottage Hospital, Isel Road,
Cockermouth
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The new £12.5m Cockermouth Hospital and Health Centre is part of the initial tranche of eLIFT Cumbria projects that achieved financial close on 30th April 2012.
The development, together with the Cleator Moor Health Centre, is funded by and being delivered through the NHS Express LIFT (Local Improvement Finance Trust) initiative. Along with Cleator Moor, the project is the first to utilise the Express LIFT Lease Plus Agreement.
Construction work on the site located next to the existing Cockermouth Cottage Hospital on Isel Road started in earnest on the 8th May 2012. Completion is expected in autumn 2013, when it will replace the existing building which is more than 100 years old and will provide new facilities for the town's GP's who are currently working out of temporary accommodation following the floods which devastated Cockermouth in November 2009.
The new building will bring the services of three GP practices (17,500 population) together and provide an 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. service for registered and non registered patients, nursing services, a community hospital with nine inpatient beds catering for step-up/step down beds, non-acute care, long term conditions, NHS dentistry, pharmacy, rehabilitation services including physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, dietician service, podiatry, children's centre, diagnostics, extended range of outpatients/specialist services and minor surgery, and co-location with the voluntary sector. Facilities for training (five of the GPs are GP trainers) will also be made available.
The building design enables the merging of 3/4 existing receptions into one, one administration and management function for the whole integrated team, five nurse teams (one in each practice, one in the community hospital and one in the community) to merge into one and the seventeen GPs (10 wte) in the town to share skills e.g. diabetes and dermatology, and develop new special interests with the aim to treat more people in the community.
