Tim Farron urges Health Secretary not to scrap plans to rebuild Royal Lancaster Infirmary

Local MP Tim Farron has written to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting, asking him not to drop plans to build a new hospital in Lancaster.

In May last year, the previous Government announced funding for two new hospitals to replace Royal Preston Hospital and Royal Lancaster Infirmary.

However last week, the Chancellor announced that there would be a “complete review” of the New Hospitals Programme with a “thorough, realistic and positive timetable for delivery.”

In his letter to the Health Secretary, Tim wrote: “The Royal Lancaster Infirmary is the major acute hospital for most residents in the South Lakes, with incredible staff giving people excellent care. However the hospital itself is no longer fit for purpose.

“The Acute Medical Unit is based in portacabins. Much of the plaster on the walls is crumbling. The windows and walls are in poor condition. The space for car parking is nowhere near sufficient, especially for staff. And rats have been spotted running around the building.

“A new hospital, at a more accessible site, is desperately needed.

“Therefore I am enormously concerned by the Chancellor’s announcement earlier this week that there will be a “full review” of the New Hospitals Programme. This ‘review’ must not be the Government’s way of kicking this vital hospital improvements into the long grass. 

“Will you urgently please confirm whether the previously successful bids to build two new hospitals in Lancaster and Preston will be going ahead? And if the programme has been paused, can you please provide a timeline for when a final decision will be made?”