A multi-million pound building project at Gorleston's James Paget Hospital is back on track after it was knocked off course by a lightning strike.

The huge crane that has been used in the £8m project to build four new theatres at the hospital was hit by lightning last November - which in turn knocked out some of the hospital's systems, including the phones.

The strike caused a delay to building work but board members heard yesterday that the project was back on track and the new state of the art Day Case Theatre Unit was hoped to be completed in July.

Mark Flynn, director of finance, said there had also been 'issues' over the Christmas period that had delayed the scheme but it was now back on schedule.

He told board members that the Day Case unit, which is being built alongside three new operating theatres, a new theatre entrance and reception area, is expected to 'go live' and open to patients in August.

Once opened the new unit will cut down on patients' length of stay, using the latest ventilation systems to provide maximum flexibility for surgical procedures.

During the meeting Mr Flynn also told members the move of some services away from Lowestoft Hospital was being sped up due to the age and condition of the building, which is more than 150 years old.

Health chiefs confirmed plans to close Lowestoft Hospital in October 2013 as part of a major overhaul of services.

Mr Flynn said: 'We felt that because of the safety concerns we've had to accelerate some of the moves of services, in particular starting to relocate more services to Kirkley care clinic.'

Among the services that look set to move are community dental services, which are currently provided from a mobile unit at the hospital site.

'All patients who have received appointments to attend the hospital site will be informed of the changes of venue,' Mr Flynn added.

Members also heard that the JPH A&E department had seen its highest ever number of patients in a financial year in 2014/15 after attendances increased by 3.61pc, and for that period the hospital had managed to maintain the four hour performance standard.

Of the 70,174 patients that arrived at A&E for treatment, 95.34pc of them were seen, treated and admitted or discharged within four hours.

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