Work continues apace on multi-million pound developments at Wigan borough hospital

Work on a new £10m Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) and £7.9m laminar-flow theatre with recovery area at Leigh Infirmary is continuing apace and are expected to begin receiving patients by winter this year.

Back in December, Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (WWL) announced its “spade in the ground” to commence the build of both the CDC and the new theatre.

Richard Mundon, director of strategy and planning and executive lead for Leigh, said: “The changes we are making at Leigh Infirmary are undoubtedly a great boost for staff at the site and the local area.

“The new buildings for the theatre, recovery area, MRI and CT scanners are now in place and, internally, we will be soon concentrating on fitting out these new buildings to refurbish, extend and upgrade the existing radiology department to include additional waiting room space and new X-ray and ultrasound equipment.

“The cardiorespiratory and phlebotomy departments will also be re-modelled to create additional space to provide a one-stop shop for diagnostic tests.”

The CDC is part of a national programme to increase access to key diagnostic tests and increase capacity across a range of investigative procedures such as MRI, CT, X-ray, ultrasound, electrocardiogram (ECG/ECHO) heart monitoring tests/scans, blood pressure and heart monitoring, lung function, sleep studies and phlebotomy.

The new laminar-flow theatre will allow the trust to move breast surgery from Wrightington to Leigh.

The modernised facilities within the theatre complex will also enable other specialties to increase utilisation of existing capacity and longer opening hours of support services on site.

Richard said: “Ultimately, these developments will enable us to remove some of the pressure at Wigan Infirmary, allowing the focus there to be on emergency and overnight procedures and high dependency patients, and for Wrightington Hospital to remain the dedicated orthopaedic surgical hub for Greater Manchester – all of which is great news for the people of Wigan and beyond.

“We would like to thank our staff, our patients and local residents in Leigh for their continued support and patience while this work is underway, and we look forward to sharing more details about these exciting new facilities as we approach our opening date.”