The North Cambridgeshire Hospital in Wisbech is set to benefit from an £8 million investment. 

Matthew Winn, Chief Executive, Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust explained: “I am delighted to announce our exciting redevelopment plans for the North Cambridgeshire Hospital site in Wisbech which will ensure a vibrant local base for health services for the local population for years to come.”

“The £8 million redevelopment will focus on upgrading vacant or out-dated accommodation on site and be phased over a three year period.  By Autumn 2018 we will have refurbished part of the vacant Rowan Lodge and moved the musculo-skeletal physiotherapy services from their current location on site into the refurbished building. This will vastly improve the environment for patients, visitors and staff.”

Additional redevelopment plans, subject to appropriate planning permission, include: 

• refurbishing the existing kitchen/dining block to create a new clinical area from which high quality services can be delivered, improving the privacy and dignity available for patients
• completing the full refurbishment of Rowan Lodge and moving the outpatient services delivered by Queen Elizabeth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust into this new clinical area
• demolishing redundant and out-dated buildings to create, additional car parking space and landscaped areas
• redeveloping the main entrance and waiting areas to create a welcoming and accessible space for patients and visitors, including a café
• upgrading the infrastructure and facilities on site throughout the above timescales including an energy centre which will provide a more sustainable approach to heating across the site.

Mr Winn added “We want to provide a great facility for the benefit of local people.  Our plans are sufficiently flexible to enable further development on site including in support of the ‘Wisbech 2020 vision’ and local regeneration schemes.”

Mr Malcolm Bruce, Chairman of the Friends of North Cambridgeshire Hospital and local resident added: “We are absolutely delighted to hear about this investment which will result in tremendous improvements on the site which will undoubtedly benefit local people.  Services closer to home are so important for our community and we look forward to continuing our fund-raising activities and longstanding positive relationship with health service providers in the coming years.”

The Arthur Rank House Charity has also announced exciting plans for the services they deliver from the Alan Hudson Day Treatment Centre on the site.   

Dr Lynn Morgan, CEO of the Arthur Rank Hospice Charity said  “We have plans to double the size of the Alan Hudson Day Treatment Centre which is located on the North Cambridgeshire Hospital site.  Our work will start in the autumn of this year and we are pleased that we will be co-located with these exciting plans for the wider site, all of which will mean a significant upgrade of healthcare facilities for Wisbech and the surrounding area.”

NCH Redevelopment diagram