From Wednesday 29th of May, the current main entrance to West Cumberland Hospital (WCH) will permanently move to its new location. The change is the latest milestone to be achieved in the £40 million pound redevelopment of the hospital.
The closing of the old main entrance marks the end of an era and the exciting beginning of a new chapter, as phase two of the redevelopment at WCH enters the final stages.
The redevelopment includes a new Children and Young People’s ward, a care of the elderly and general medicine ward, a specialist palliative care ward and a stroke and rehabilitation ward which are due to move to their new accommodation from 22nd July onwards.
The doors to the new main entrance are located on the Homewood Road side of the building and will provide staff, patients and visitors with a more modern and welcoming area as well as a brand new, contemporary reception desk located next to the current coffee shop in the main atrium. In the short term, WH Smith will remain in its current location. However, it will move to its permanent new location, also in the atrium, in June.
There will also be a significant change to the road layout at the hospital site, and we are asking all patients, visitors and staff to familiarise themselves with the new routes before arriving at the hospital.
We will be closing the current exit point and opening a new one adjacent to the current entry point off Homewood Road. The ring road will continue to be one way.
Visitors to the hospital will also notice a change in parking. This is a short-term change whilst work begins to create the addition of approximately 40 parking spaces. Parking will no longer be available outside the current main entrance, but there will be disabled parking spaces in front of the new main entrance.
The foot path from the tiered car park at the bottom of the site to the main entrance will be closed for the period of the works, we would ask that when the public are entering the hospital from the tiered car park that they use the entrance adjacent to Women’s Outpatients and make their way internally through the hospital.
Dean Oliver, Director of Performance, Planning and Strategy for NCIC said: “We are delighted that the new main entrance has now reached completion on schedule. The new main entrance is a great upgrade to the site, befitting of the hospital itself. This is yet another milestone the project has reached, and we look forward to the opening of our phase 2 development in July this year.”
