Major investment secured for Frizington Community Training Hub and GP surgery redevelopment

The project has been made possible through a successful bid by North Cumbria Primary Care for £366,730 of NHS England Utilisation and Modernisation Funding. The investment will support the redevelopment of the site, increasing the number of consultation rooms available for patient care while creating a dedicated training hub for medical students and healthcare professionals.

Facilitated by Pears Cumbria School of Medicine (PCSM), a partnership between the University of Cumbria and Imperial College London, the hub will strengthen primary care training capacity in West Cumbria while helping improve access to healthcare services for local residents.

The redevelopment will see a previously closed satellite GP surgery brought back into use, creating a shared educational and clinical resource for the local community. Developed in partnership with North Cumbria Primary Care, the hub will support the training of medical students, doctors in postgraduate training and a wide range of healthcare professionals, while also contributing to the delivery of primary care services.

PCSM is committed to working in partnership with North Cumbria Primary Care to train and inspire the next generation of doctors and GPs to build their careers in Cumbria. This is particularly important for communities such as Frizington and West Cumbria, which have experienced significant GP workforce shortages for many years.

The Community Training Hubs model was established to create sustainable primary care training infrastructure embedded within underserved communities. By bringing together educational investment, clinical expertise and local partnerships, the Frizington hub will provide high-quality learning opportunities while supporting the long-term sustainability of local healthcare services.

This investment is therefore about much more than improving a building. It is about increasing capacity to care for local people today, while investing in the future primary care workforce that communities across Cumbria will need for years to come.

Dr Jerome Poppe, Head of Primary Care at PCSM, said:

"By bringing training funding and sharing resources, we can provide excellent and innovative learning opportunities, attract and keep more doctors in Cumbria and improve services for communities that need them most. We know that people are more likely to build their careers in the places where they train, and projects such as this help create the environments where future doctors and healthcare professionals can learn, work and ultimately choose to stay.

The Community Training Hubs programme was developed to create sustainable primary care training infrastructure within underserved communities. The Frizington hub is a great example of how educational investment can strengthen local healthcare services, creating opportunities to recruit and retain GPs while supporting high-quality training for future healthcare professionals."

Professor Mary Morrell, Head of School at PCSM, said:

"This project represents much more than a new training facility. It creates a shared educational resource for West Cumbria that will support not only Pears Cumbria School of Medicine students, but also medical students from other institutions, doctors in postgraduate training, and a wide range of other healthcare professionals developing their skills in community settings.

"By bringing together training funding, clinical expertise and local partnerships, we can provide high-quality learning opportunities while strengthening healthcare services for the people of Cumbria. This investment demonstrates what can be achieved when education and healthcare organisations work together with a shared commitment to supporting local communities and developing the healthcare workforce of the future."