Specialist A&E hospital planned in Northumberland
- Published
Emergency services at North Tyneside and Wansbeck hospitals could be reduced
Plans for a £75m specialist emergency care hospital near Cramlington have been submitted by Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.
It is part of plans to downsize A&E facilities at Northumberland and North Tyneside hospitals and create one specialist centre.
If approved, all severe accident and emergencies would be treated at the new centre.
Less serious A&E patients will go to Wansbeck and North Tyneside hospitals.
The new hospital will be among the first in the UK to have specialist A&E consultants on site 24-hours a day, seven days a week, the trust said.
Specialist consultants
It will also include admission and in-patient wards, diagnostics and critical care as well as a short-stay paediatric facility and consultant-led maternity unit.
The new development would be located alongside the A189, north of the Moor Farm roundabout at Cramlington.
The three-storey building, designed by the trust's clinicians, includes wards which are arranged around a central nurses' station.
Jim Mackey, chief executive of Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, said it would give the people of Northumberland "access to some of the best healthcare in the country and internationally".
He said they would be investing £200m over the next 10 years into the area's healthcare, which would support the local economy and provide much-needed jobs.
Northumberland County Council is currently reviewing the planning application and will start a public consultation exercise.
If approved, work could start on site later this year.
The trust is also improving services and facilities at Wansbeck and North Tyneside general hospitals and re-building Berwick and Haltwhistle community hospitals.