Funding for a new £12m Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC) at the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle has been approved.
The new UTC is part of a longer term plan to improve access to urgent care services in Carlisle easing emergency department pressures.
The current Emergency Department was built with capacity for 30,000 attendances each year. Last year we had 78,300 attendances which is more than two and half times its current capacity. This often leads to difficulties with overcrowding in the department and issues with privacy and dignity for our patients.
The UTC will be built next to the existing emergency department and 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.
Mike Rickards, Consultant in Emergency Medicine at North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are delighted to have been awarded funding for the UTC in Carlisle. It will make a real difference to our patients.
“Opening the UTC will help ensure patients are seen in the right place at the right time by the correct clinician. The centre will also provide great support to the main Emergency Department by freeing up capacity for patients who are acutely unwell.
“We know our patients want as smooth a journey as possible when receiving treatment and urgent care services help ensure this is the case.
“The centres will also help keep our emergency care departments free for what they are there for – emergencies.”
Cumbria Health, who provide out of hours GP services will also be located in the UTC once it is complete which means that patients will have seamless access to the right service. Cumbria Health have been temporarily relocated from the emergency department to the ground floor of the Cumberland Infirmary to free up space in the meantime.
Work will start to build the new UTC in the new year and we expect it to be open by the end of 2025.
