Planners approve new look for Altnagelvin Hospital

Planners have given their approval to a proposal which will transform the entrance to Altnagelvin Hospital.

The work will see a new three-storey entrance block being constructed at the Derry hospital.

The new section will also incorporate six wards made up of 144 single bedrooms.

These wards will be transferred from the hospital’s existing main tower block.

The new entrance area is part of a £73m project to develop the North Wing of the hospital.

A detailed planning application for the new building was submitted last year.

The planning department of Derry City and Strabane District Council recently submitted their final report which has recommended that the Altnagelvin development be granted permission.

Their report will be brought before an upcoming meeting of the local council’s planning committee, who have the final say on the matter.

Altnagelvin Hospital opened in 1960.

Since then, the main entrance to the hospital has changed little.

However, that all looks set to change following the approval of the new entrance building.

At the front of the new building, there will be set down/pick up areas for pedestrians, disabled, public and private vehicles.

These areas will be covered to protect people from the weather conditions.

The existing roundabout at the hospital entrance will be reconfigured and there will be new landscaping put in place.

Internal courtyard areas will also be incorporated within the building.

As part of the development, the current car at the rear of the hospital’s entrance area will be removed.

A new multi-story car park recently opened within the hospital’s grounds, close to the proposed new entrance building.

News of the approval for the new entrance building at Altnagelvin comes in the same week that the hospital’s management revealed more details about the new £50m cancer treatment centre at Altnagelvin.

Work is continuing on the new radiotherapy centre which is expected to begin administering treatments in the autumn of this year.

The centre will treat cancer patients throughout the north west, including Donegal. The Irish Government has provided around a third of the funding for the centre in the first cross-border health initiative of its kind.

The new radiotheraphy centre will employ 215 people.