Cash bid to improve Burnley General Hospital

The East Lancashire Hospitals Trust wants to create new opthalmology and surgical units at the Burnley site and replace old buildings.

The bid is for two schemes, improvements to the Wilson Hey Centre for elective surgery and a new Opthalmology unit, which will allow specialist eye care and treatment to be provided from a single new facility.

Burnley MP Gordon Birtwistle told the Express he had been working with the Trust in its bid for funding.

The MP has been working with Hospital Trust bosses to prepare the bid for Government funding which has now been submitted to Treasury Secretary Danny Alexander and Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt with his support.

He said: “I pushed to get funding for the new emergency unit, opened a few months ago and I’ll be doing all I can to help the Hospital Trust get the support it needs to get these plans off the ground.”

Burnley General Hospital has seen a number of its services stripped and transferred to the Royal Blackburn Hospital in recent years but has also seen redevelopment of its own.

Recent developments include the opening of the £32m. Lancashire Women and Newborn Centre in 2011 and the new £9m. integrated Urgent Care Centre which opened in January this year.