FURNESS General Hospital is in line to receive investment into its infrastructure.

The Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB) has revealed that proposals for investment into the Barrow hospital’s infrastructure are in development.

This comes after the chief executive of University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust (UHMBT) Aaron Cummins told members of the health and adults scrutiny committee for Westmorland and Furness Council that Furness General Hospital has a ‘bright future’.

READ MORE: 'No decisions' made on Furness General Hospital proposed ward changes

Several wards are due to be repurposed or closed as part of a restructuring to beds at the hospital.

However in a report the trust says the proposed changes do not mean that services are stopped or reduced but where they are provided within the hospital and the community may change.

Committee chair of the health and adults scrutiny committee councillor Dyan Jones previously said the proposals had caused ‘concern’ in the community.

Mr Cummins previously said the ‘driver’ behind the proposed changes to Furness General Hospital is to make sure patients get the ‘right care, in the right place, at the right time’.

The ICB has also revealed the locations of two new potential sites for new hospitals to replace Royal Preston Hospital and Royal Lancaster Infirmary.

  • The proposed site for the replacement of Royal Preston Hospital is land between Stanifield Lane and Wigan Road, south of Stoney Lane in Farington, near to the end of the M65 West.
  • The proposed site for the replacement Royal Lancaster Infirmary is Bailrigg East, situated north of and in close proximity to Lancaster University.

Mr Cummins said: “A new hospital on a new site in Lancaster will allow us to fully address the significant problems that we face with the current ageing buildings at Royal Lancaster Infirmary and will bring huge benefits to our communities and to the wider economy.

“We have the opportunity to create a legacy, with a hospital specifically designed for the needs of our population, improving their experience and giving them the best clinical care. We additionally have significant ambitions to create facilities that are digitally innovative, much more cost effective, and with a reduced carbon footprint.”

The two new hospitals are part of a wider programme of work that is considering how clinical services are configured across all acute hospital sites in Lancashire and South Cumbria to meet the needs of the population in the future in a way that makes the best use of all available resources.

Professor Silas Nicholls, chief executive of Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, added: “Securing our preferred site is a huge step forward in our bid to create a state-of-the-art new hospital to replace Royal Preston Hospital.

“This would provide major trauma and specialist services to the population of Lancashire and South Cumbria and acute hospital services to Central Lancashire.

“A new hospital will improve quality, safety and patient experience and have a transformative impact on the services we will be able to provide on-site and in our wider communities, so we can meet the needs of our patients and future generations.”

The ICB says it remains open to and welcoming of suggestions of alternative sites for the new hospitals, which will be subject to the same assessment criteria.