HEALTH chiefs aiming to avoid 'getting it wrong' will bring in an external adviser to help deliver on the 'once-in-a-lifetime opportunity' for a new hospital in Warrington.

A 'long list' of sites are being considered for the proposed new facility.

Part of the current hospital's estate, on Lovely Lane, is more than 100 years old, with essential maintenance costing around £2 million a year.

Mel Pickup, chief executive of Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, delivered an update at Thursday's health and wellbeing board meeting at the Town Hall.

As confirmed on May 31, an early bid for funding 'designed to alert' the Government of the need for a new hospital in the borough has been put together.

During Thursday's meeting, Ms Pickup confirmed health chiefs met again with the council and other 'interested parties' to discuss the next steps.

She added: "The conversations focused mainly on follow-ups to actions agreed at the previous meeting – and they were that we would put together a specification to secure some external expertise to take this programme forward.

"I think all of us appreciate that a new hospital and a capital investment in excess of £200 million is a huge undertaking.

"This is, from all of our points of view, I think, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create something and we don't want to get it wrong.

"We recognise that we may not have, within our existing organisations, the capacity to do that, so a proposal will come back to a meeting to describe how we will secure an external adviser."