Gazette News
Work to add operating theatre at Royal Lancaster Infirmary under way
1:15pm Wednesday 22nd February 2012
WORK is getting under way this month on Royal Lancaster Infirmary’s new mobile operating theatre.
University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Trust (UHMBT) is creating 34 medical beds to help prevent long waits for emergency patients.
Trust directors said non-urgent operations for a small number of patients would be postponed, including hernia repair, non malignant minor surgery such as the removal of cysts, some investigative procedures, daycase surgery and non-urgent elective gynaecology procedures.
Day case eye surgery would not be affected.
UHMBT chief executive Tony Halsall said: “We have recognised that there is a need to make improvements to emergency care at RLI to improve patient experience and reduce waiting times.”
South Lakeland GP and former trust governor David Earnshaw said the temporary measure for treating patients made hospital services ‘sound like the type you would find in Afghanistan or a third world scenario’.