£12.5m centre to cut hospital waiting times (From Warrington Guardian)

£12.5m centre to cut hospital waiting times

A GROUND-BREAKING £12.5million state-of-the-art treatment and diagnostic centre to slash waiting times is to be built at Leighton Hospital.

Council planning chiefs gave plans for the two-storey treatment centre and single-storey energy complex the go ahead at last Tuesday's development control meeting.

Officers gave 'conditional approval' to the scheme but are now awaiting the all clear from the Highways Agency in relation to parking issues.

It will be the biggest cash injection the Crewe-based hospital has ever received and will allow an extra 3,500 operations to be performed every year.

The centre will provide new purpose-built facilities for day surgery and improved endoscopy services, as part of a £63million national programme.

It is one of only six similar developments throughout the country, which are being constructed with funding from the Government and Primary Care Trusts.

The complex will take up a site of more than three acres on the existing staff car park, with new parking now being sought.

The diagnostic and treatment centre will be linked to the main hospital by a 25-metre 'air bridge' so that patients can be transferred between premises.

It will include four operating theatres, four endoscopy rooms, outpatient consultation equipment and facilities for investigation.

Once open, an estimated 79 per cent of all surgery carried out at the hospital will be undertaken as day case surgery, making overnight stays redundant.

The new facility also means there is a greater choice available to patients about the time and date they receive treatment.

Scores of jobs will also be created, as extra consultants, nurses and support staff will be recruited to meet the increased workload.

Construction work is expected to take 18 months and the centre will open to its first patients in April next year.

Crewe and Nantwich Borough council planning officer Paul Ancell said: "The site looks out on to open fields to the north and the treatment centre would be reasonably prominent when approaching along the A530 Middlewich Road.

"However, while the new building would be of a significant scale, it would not appear detached or alien when viewed against the backdrop of existing hospital buildings to the south."

The new centre will help meet strict Government targets that stipulate patients should not wait more than six months for an operation by 2005 and no more than three months by 2008.