The two-storey surgical unit, beside the city's Cumberland Infirmary, has been snubbed by consultants and NHS managers, say the developers who built it.

So the facility – complete with several consulting and recovery rooms and individual wards for five day–case patients – remains empty, its equipment gathering dust.

Some senior doctors have joined Carlisle's Conservative parliamentary candidate John Stevenson in calling for NHS bosses to make use of the hospital.

Doctors say it would help ease pressure on the Cumberland Infirmary.

The redundant hospital has come to light just days before city councillors are due to consider plans for another new £7m hospital less than a mile away.

The proposed new private hospital on Dalston Road, on the site of the existing Caldew private hospital, has split the local community.

Meanwhile, NorthStar Capita Projects, the developer which built the hospital next to the infirmary, fear it may never be used.

They have formally objected to the Caldew Hospital plans, and blamed doctors for "scuppering" their project by supporting the Dalston Road hospital project.

But Dr Paul Dyson, chairman of the infirmary's Medical Staff Committee, said doctors at the hospital were never part of the discussions about whether the NorthStar hospital should go ahead.

He said: "We don't have any authority as a consultant body to negotiate with property developers."

"It seems a bit daft for a property developer to build something in advance of any agreement that it would definitely be needed."

Dr Dyson said the hospital should be used by NHS medics employed by North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust, which manages the Carlisle infirmary and the West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven.

"The consultant body would welcome a facility like that because it would give us added flexibility," he said.

"We're often very short of beds and operating theatre time."

"It would be nice to have an extra facility within the hospital grounds to give us extra flexibility."

"It certainly does seem to be a waste. But it certainly wasn't the consultants here who scuppered this hospital. There are over 100 of them and they're not all surgeons and they're not all involved in private practice. The majority are not."

Mr Stevenson, the Carlisle city councillor who hopes to become a Conservative MP for the city at the next general election, said he was "absolutely amazed" that a £4m private hospital was gathering dust in Carlisle.

He said: "It's a terrible waste of a valuable resource."

"We all know that the Cumberland Infirmary struggles a little bit with capacity and this is an opportunity potentially to increase that."

"I will call for the NHS to go into discussion with the developer immediately, with a view to seeing how this facility can be utilised by our health services. The Caldew Hospital could remain as a private facility for paying customers but this could become an additional facility for the NHS."

"It could supplement what we already have."

Mr Stevenson said he recently had a letter from a female constituent who for some reason had to go to Blackpool for an operation. Having extra surgical facilities in Cumbria would mean that is less likely to happen, he pointed out.

But Carlisle MP Eric Martlew said the hospital was probably a victim of the reduction in NHS hospital waiting times in north Cumbria and the NHS 'Closer to Home' initiative, which aims to treat more patients in the community rather than hospital.

Mr Martlew said: "If somebody wants to build another private hospital that's fair enough. This [the empty new hospital] just seems to have been a bad investment."

"I don't think it's budgetary constraints that are stopping the NHS taking it on."

"The new NHS policy means hospitals are moving away from having more beds and people are being cared for more in their own homes."

"It's not for the NHS to bail this company out of a bad position, but if they're prepared to cut their losses then something may be possible."

Danny Sharpe, from NorthStar Capital Projects, has lodged a formal objection to the Caldew Hospital plan, saying his company consulted for 18 months with the North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust and a private sector partner to get its surgical unit up and running.

He claims that consultants were prepared to scupper the future of the NorthStar hospital because they backed the Dalston Road plan, which he argues is in a "totally unsuitable area".

He added: "A hospital unit such as this needs quick and easy access to a fully staffed emergency department and can benefit from the services offered at the [Cumberland Infirmary] without having to impose an out-of-keeping three-storey building in a quiet residential area."

"Until the option of utilising our unit has been fully explored and negotiations with all of the main parties held, it would be a nonsense to grant consent to yet another facility when there is already one standing empty in a much more sustainable location."

Mr Sharpe's fellow director Ian Holmes said his company was prepared to extend the hospital next to the infirmary if that was needed.

He said the firm took the decision to build the unit after doctors working privately in the north east said they were regularly seeing patients from Carlisle who were being sent over there for treatment.

He said: "There have been negotiations with the trust in Carlisle but it all seems to have gone quiet. We were told by the consultants we were working with that there was a high demand for private treatment in Carlisle."

"Our unit could treat about 12 people at a time while the Caldew Hospital one would have 22 beds. We'd be quite happy to extend our unit."

"We've tried to negotiate with the NHS for 18 months for them to take it on but the consultants haven't wanted to. We're willing to enter into a any viable agreement."

He added that some alternative use may have to be found for the hospital if a health care user can not be found for it.

A spokeswoman for Caldew Hospital said its proposed new hospital would be a natural progression for the existing hospital, which has been there for 25 years.

She said: "However, it is now time that we moved into the 21st century and for this reason we have proposed these new plans to incorporate three operating theatres, 22 patient beds including HDU beds, an X-ray unit, and a physiotherapy department."

"The local medical consultants have been very supportive of our development as they recognise the need for a much larger facility within the city that will be able to cater for patients otherwise being seen outside of the area at present. We wish to see patients treated closer to home in a modern facility that can both complement the NHS and reduce the strain on valuable resources within it. The consultants have taken a studied and professional view of both sites and have concluded that our proposal is preferable in terms of facilities," she said.

North Cumbria Acute Hospitals NHS Trust declined to comment on the NorthStar hospital issue.

Planners will consider next Friday whether to approve the Caldew Hospital plan, which has provoked 57 formal objections and 100 letters and emails of support, including many from consultants employed at the infirmary. Planners are recommending that the plans are approved.

Source: News & Star