Frequently asked questions

The NHS in Lancashire and South Cumbria has secured proposed sites for new hospitals on new sites to replace both Royal Preston Hospital (Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust) and Royal Lancaster Infirmary (University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust) as part of a rolling programme of national investment in capital infrastructure beyond 2030 through the national New Hospital Programme.

The proposed site for the replacement of Royal Preston Hospital is the 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, Lancaster. Bailrigg East is land situated north of and in close proximately to Lancaster University.

University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust has secured a site in the interim for a replacement Royal Lancaster Infirmary, and Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has secured a site in the interim for a replacement Royal Preston Hospital. Should an alternative site become the preferred site, the Trust will enact the agreed exit strategy. Although no final decision has or can be taken at this stage, before the Trust can proceed to the consultation stage, a deliverable option is required to enable a full and transparent consultation process to commence.

It is important to state that no final decisions have been made. Although the NHS has secured potential new sites, we are open to other sites being suggested, which would be subject to the same comprehensive review as the proposed sites. We have an exit plan in place should the preferred potential sites not be required for new hospital builds.

Whilst the Trusts have bought the sites at Bailrigg East and Lancashire Central to potentially use for a replacement Royal Lancaster Infirmary and a replacement Royal Preston Hospital respectively, it is important we consider all options should a proposed site no longer be required for a new hospital build. We have therefore developed an exit strategy detailing the options for what we could do with the land / site.

Should the position change and the site no longer be required for the replacement Royal Lancaster Infirmary / Royal Preston Hospital, then the Trust and ICB will review the preferred way forward for the site. This review would include consideration of any other health-related requirements in the first instance. Following that process, appropriate professional advice would be taken with regard to interim site management and potential disposal.

The Trusts have been, and remain open to, considering any alternative sites identified or put forward. This will remain until the Integrated Care Board (ICB) receives and makes a decision based on a Decision Making Business Case, following public consultation. This process will be completed utilising the same criteria adopted for all sites considered to date.

University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust has secured a site in the interim for a replacement Royal Lancaster Infirmary, and Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has secured a site in the interim for a replacement Royal Preston Hospital. Should an alternative site become the preferred site, the Trust will enact the agreed exit strategy. Although no final decision has or can be taken at this stage, before the Trust can proceed to the consultation stage, a deliverable option is required to enable a full and transparent consultation process to commence.

We are currently in a pre-consultation engagement period, prior to full public consultation. The aim of this is to listen to feedback from patients, carers and families, colleagues, local communities and stakeholders to inform the development of proposals. Timings for the full public consultation will be shared at a later date.

Landowners and agents can find out more about the criteria for sites suitable for new hospitals in our area and how to submit a site for review at: https://newhospitals.info/SubmitSite

We will be launching a programme of public engagement in early 2025 and will be keen to hear your views on the proposed sites and suggestions for deliverable alternatives.

A comprehensive review of sites (including plot size for anticipated design requirements), location (including proximity to existing site), motorway access, existing highways infrastructure, public transport, planning and environmental conditions has been undertaken to assess sites for their suitability.

As part of the work carried out to look for potential sites, we considered travel distances, travel times, and the transport options available at this time, including public transport. This work has provided us with useful and important insight and started to show the areas that could be most impacted by a new site for a replacement Royal Lancaster Infirmary and a new site for a replacement Royal Preston Hospital. Whilst we are at an early stage, we will use the information we have gathered so far and work with partners (such as local councils) to create plans and opportunities for future travel and transport.

Accessibility will be a key consideration in developing proposals for new hospitals on new sites.

Local people’s ability to access the care they need is an absolute priority. We believe that better, more efficient hospital facilities will reduce waiting lists and hospital stay times. We also want to use digital technology to create a network of services for local people, meaning hospitals can work together more effectively, and patients can access pioneering treatment either in person or remotely, closer to home.

Public engagement and later public consultation will help us better understand the local needs of our population and any detrimental effects to access. 

Patients, local people, colleagues and stakeholders are encouraged to share their views about what new hospitals on new sites could mean for them, and on how the proposed hospital sites might impact them.

Your views are welcomed at every stage of the process, and we would encourage you to get involved in developing our proposals. Feedback on the proposed sites will be collected through a survey, available online and over the phone or by post on request; and through a series of engagement events, details of which will be publicised in advance. The survey and event details will be shared in early 2025.

We are proactively seeking feedback ahead of formal public consultation. This process is called pre-consultation engagement.

We want to hear how our proposals for two new hospitals on new sites would affect you, your family or people you care for. Your views will help to inform the development of our proposals.

Building new hospitals for Lancashire and South Cumbria is a major task, involving an incredible amount of planning. These new facilities will provide first-class healthcare for generations to come. It is important that we get it right.

We are more likely to get it right if patients, local people and stakeholders get involved at every stage of the planning process, preferably as early as possible. We want everyone in the region to understand what our proposals could mean for them before we take a more fully formed proposal out for formal public consultation later.

We also need to have a realistic, deliverable proposal before we can launch a full public consultation. It is therefore important that as many people as possible help shape this by taking part in this pre-consultation stage.

Replacements for Royal Preston Hospital and Royal Lancaster Infirmary are part of a rolling programme of national investment in capital infrastructure beyond 2030. In addition, Furness General Hospital in Barrow will benefit from investment in improvements.

We are working closely with the national New Hospital team as they await the outcome of the Government’s review of the national New Hospital Programme and look to plan and phase the construction of all schemes in the national programme.

The existing Royal Preston Hospital and Royal Lancaster Infirmary sites will remain in place and deliver services to our population until new hospital facilities are opened. What this means for future hospital services needs to be worked through. The local NHS will continue to keep communities involved and provide further updates as soon as more information becomes available.

The planning for the services within our two new hospitals is part of a wider programme of work that is considering how all of our clinical services are configured across all acute hospital sites in Lancashire and South Cumbria, so that we can meet the needs of our population in the future in a way that makes the best use of all our acute resources and ensures we have a sustainable and viable future delivering safe, effective and affordable services.

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.

The land we have identified as a preferred proposed site for Royal Preston Hospital is located approximately eight miles from the current site. A major part of the planning for the new hospital will be making sure it is as easy as possible for people who need to, to get there by car, public transport and other means of travel.

We understand that some people who currently live closer to the existing Royal Preston Hospital may feel that they might be disadvantaged if the hospital moves. We would encourage anyone with similar concerns to get involved in our discussion, as your views will have an impact on how any new hospital is designed, built and operated and how patients, visitors and staff travel to the new hospital site.

It is also important to stress that the location for a new hospital has not been finalised, and Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust remains open to considering alternative sites for a new Royal Preston Hospital.

NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board, Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the programme team are committed to work with partner organisations such as Preston City Council, Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust, primary care, and St Catherine's Hospice to develop what these services could be for example, a health hub to provide some health services closer to where people live and work in Preston, should the replacement for Royal Preston Hospital be located outside of Preston. This is in the early stages of development.

The land we have identified as a proposed site for Royal Lancaster Infirmary is located approximately two miles by road from the current site. A major part of the planning for the new hospital will be making sure it is as easy as possible for people who need to, to get there by car, public transport and other means of travel.

We understand that some people who currently live closer to the existing Royal Lancaster Infirmary may feel that they might be disadvantaged if the hospital moves. We would encourage anyone with similar concerns to get involved in our discussion, as your views will have an impact on how any new hospital is designed, built and operated and how patients, visitors and staff travel to the new hospital site.

It is also important to stress that the location for a new hospital has not been finalised, and University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust remains open to considering alternative sites for a new Royal Lancaster Infirmary.

The development of proposals will include consideration of ongoing use of the current location for appropriate elements of healthcare, potentially including community services.

We want our new hospitals to be truly sustainable for many years to come. Delivering on our net zero carbon obligations and the Greener NHS programme (opens in new window) will be a key consideration of our proposals and of new hospital facilities designs, in line with national NHS priorities. Our hospital investment plans will be designed with sustainability at their centre, minimising our environmental footprint as part of the NHS’s zero carbon goal.

Digital technology will play a major part in making new hospitals sustainable. Using techniques such as 3D modelling, we can optimise building designs long before they are built, ensuring that they are energy and heat efficient. Running other functions digitally, for example staff meetings or certain types of appointments, will also improve sustainability by reducing the need to travel.

Another thing to remember is that although building a new hospital is costly, keeping it running for generations of patients costs even more. That is why we want to invest now in a hospital which manages energy, heating, ventilation, clinical and other demands in the most sustainable way possible.

Any local businesses, premises or residences which could be impacted by new hospitals will be invited to get involved with the relevant public consultation when that launches at a later date.

Before we get to this stage, we would encourage anyone who feels they may be impacted – or anyone with views, comments or concerns about the new hospitals – to get involved in our pre-consultation engagement, with a new survey and a range of engagement events and activities due to launch in early 2025.

Fully formed proposals for the new hospitals are still being developed and will depend on many factors including the outcome of a public consultation. The overall process for building a new hospital is set out in seven clear steps, from our Case for Change through to new hospital buildings opening their doors.

Find out more about the steps in the process.
 

Bed availability, waiting lists and crowding at Emergency Departments (A&E) are common issues in existing hospitals. Our new hospitals will aim to address these issues in a number of ways, such as:

• Improved clinical design.
• Improved clinical adjacencies: building a brand new hospital gives us the opportunity to re-think where departments and facilities should be located. This can help to maximise efficiency and improve patient experience, for example by reducing front door ambulance turnover time through improved flow or shortening the corridor distance between the Emergency Department (A&E) and wards. 
• Working together: by working with our partners across the region more closely (such as Integrated Care Boards and other NHS Trusts), we can increase the amount of community care available, direct people to the best care nearby, and improve health outcomes for the population. This will reduce the number of patients who need to visit or stay in hospitals, creating more space for those who need it most.

Bed numbers will depend on a number of factors, including the ability to provide care closer to people’s homes and lessons learned during the Covid-19 pandemic. We will continue to review and refresh our demand and capacity modelling, which considers population growth, housing growth, and so on, along with ways in which care could be provided in the future. This allows us to determine the capacity required for example for beds, theatres, diagnostic rooms, and more.

The national New Hospital Programme’s Hospital 2.0 guidelines also provide a model on which future hospitals are designed and built, following an integrated and standardised approach. Based on these guidelines, 100% of all our hospital rooms in new hospitals will be single occupancy with en-suite bathrooms. We are currently planning to have similar bed numbers to what we have today.

The design of wards will also be based on Hospital 2.0 guidelines. We will share further information as it gets released by the national New Hospital Programme team.

As well as building new hospitals, we need to invest in improvements to Furness General Hospital in Barrow-in-Furness (UHMBT). This is required due to its geographically remote location, its proximity to some of the UK’s major strategic national assets, and its need to meet NHS environmental goals.

As part of a plan for wider government investment in Barrow-in-Furness, aimed at supporting its key industries and subsequently growing the local population, there is a recognised need for additional capital investment in Furness General Hospital, particularly for urgent and emergency care and maternity services.

Investment in Furness General Hospital would mean better care and a better experience for patients and staff, particularly for patients who need critical or high dependency care and people receiving emergency care. A modern ‘Emergency Care Village’ and expanded diagnostic suite with additional computed tomography (CT) imaging have been proposed, alongside an expanded maternity centre, each aimed at improving the quality and accessibility of care.

The number of single rooms would be increased to create flexible space that could be used to keep patients separated for infection control or could be adapted for other uses, for example, to treat patients who need closer levels of monitoring. A newly developed ‘single front door’ approach would streamline patients arriving at the hospital to the right place more efficiently and prevent unnecessary admissions. Additional digital technologies would be brought in to support a network of care across Lancashire and South Cumbria. This would link up doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals to work together on treatment for patients.

Investment in Furness General Hospital is essential to meet the growing needs of Barrow-in-Furness and surrounding areas, increasing capacity and reducing strain on the local healthcare system. Full proposals are still in development for Furness General Hospital and will be shared in due course.

All hospitals in our region have standard NHS funding for regular maintenance and repairs. This is a part of core Trust budgets and is not part of the New Hospitals Programme.

As outlined in the Case for Change report, the NHS in our region has prioritised the need to address significant issues with our ageing hospitals in Preston and Lancaster. There is also a need for investment in Furness General Hospital in the context of its strategic importance and geographically remote location.

Chorley and South Ribble Hospital

Unlike Royal Preston Hospital, the Chorley and South Ribble Hospital site is more modern, with fewer backlog maintenance challenges. It is not part of the national New Hospital Programme. It has its own standard NHS funding for regular maintenance and repairs and this will continue. 
Recent investments at Chorley and South Ribble Hospital include:

• The surgical hub at Chorley and South Ribble Hospital in March 2023 was one of the first eight hubs nationally to have received Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) accreditation as a surgical hub, with new theatres where elective treatment takes place.
• New Cuerden ward.
• Multi-million pound investment in a new state-of-the-art ophthalmology centre.

Where investment is needed at Chorley and South Ribble Hospital, Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust will continue to support this as part of its core budget.

Westmorland General Hospital

The Westmorland General Hospital site is more modern, with fewer backlog maintenance challenges. Outside of the New Hospital Programme, recent investments at Westmorland General Hospital include:

• A new £8.6million Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC), which opened in October 2024. The centre has new MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and CT (computed tomography) scanning suites as well as a welcoming and easily accessible reception area, a new waiting room, consulting rooms and other spaces with different types of diagnostic equipment.
• Total investment of £16.7m into surgical facilities at the hospital since 2019 –including two brand new theatres and the refurbishment of a further three theatres.

Where further investment is needed at Westmorland General Hospital, University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust will continue to support this as part of its core budget. 

Royal Preston Hospital is the main provider of specialised services for Lancashire and South Cumbria, providing specialist care to 1.8 million people across the region.

The site provides the very best surgical, radiotherapy and drug treatment for cancer patients across the region, as well as specialist renal, allergy and neurosurgery services.

The specialist regional vascular centre delivers all vascular elective and emergency surgery across Preston, Chorley and South Ribble, as well as Barrow, Kendal, Lancaster, Blackpool and Wigan.

Because of its role as a Major Trauma Centre, Royal Preston Hospital also treats seriously ill and injured patients from as far away as Scotland and Kent, as well as hundreds of others per year who live outside of the immediate region. Find out more about the Major Trauma Centre’s role here.

Building a new hospital to replace Royal Preston Hospital would present an opportunity to improve the running of the Major Trauma Centre and our other specialist services, transforming care for our patients from Lancashire and South Cumbria and beyond.

We know that car parking is an important issue for both patients, families and carers and colleagues working in our hospitals. We are at an early stage in the process and the specific designs for hospitals and their car parks will come at a later stage. We will keep people informed as we progress.

As car parks are often the first point of contact that a patient, visitor or member of staff will have with the hospital site, it is expected car parking will be incorporated within the national New Hospital Programme’s Hospital 2.0 guidelines. This will utilise technology, modern methods of construction and contribute to being carbon net zero.

On 29 July 2024 the Chancellor announced a review of the New Hospital Programme (NHP) to ensure it had a ‘thorough, realistic and costed timetable for delivery’. Both the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (LTHTr) and the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust (UHMBT) NHP schemes were confirmed as within the scope of the review, as per the Terms of Reference published on 20 September 2024. We understand that the review has provided the opportunity to ensure the national New Hospital Programme is on the soundest possible footing for delivery and that the information from the review has been fed into the Spending Review process.

In her Autumn Budget Statement, the Chancellor confirmed that publication of the review of the national NHP will follow in the new year. It was noted in the published Budget report that there would be delivery of the New Hospital Programme on a more sustainable and deliverable footing, moving swiftly to rebuild hospitals wholly or primarily built with Reinforced Aerated Autoclaved Concrete (RAAC) or which are in build and that the remaining schemes (such as those for LTHTr and UHMBT) will be delivered through a rolling programme of major investment, as part of the government’s commitment to providing hospital infrastructure investment. The report also confirms increased capital spending for the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).

Whilst the review is taking place, and in the period between the review ending and the outcome being confirmed and communicated, all schemes within the NHP will be supported appropriately to continue to make progress. As soon as we are in a position to communicate anything further, we will do so.

The programme will run through multiple general elections, and we will continue to work with the national New Hospital Programme team, NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care to deliver the new hospital facilities for our region.