Health service staff in Lancaster are already clamouring to get their youngsters' names down on the waiting list for a new nursery set to open next summer.

The Morecambe Bay Hospitals NHS Trust has won around £1million of funding to build two 58-place nurseries for pre-school children on-site at both the Royal Lancaster Infirmary and the Furness General Hospital in Barrow.

The nurseries will be for the use of hospital, primary care trust and ambulance service staff.

Sue Smith, trust recruitment and retention manager, said staff surveys had revealed a demand for nursery facilities, which had prompted the trust to bid for NHS funding.

Mrs Smith said the new nurseries would make a phenomenal difference to staff, who were already ringing in to get their children's names on the waiting list for places.

"We knew there was a lot of demand for it, but child care co-ordinator hasn't stopped taking calls since we announced the news," she added.

A site for the new nursery has been identified within the grounds of the RLI, but plans are still being drawn up.