SHIPLEY Hospital is due to close this autumn – with proceeds from the sale to be spent on a new Health and Wellbeing facility in the town.
Controversial plans to close the hospital were first announced by the NHS almost five years ago.
Services offered at the Kirkgate hospital, including physiotherapy and community therapy, would be moved to other health facilities, and the building sold.
The hospital is a converted house dating back over a century, and the NHS claimed that it was no longer suitable for use as a modern medical facility.
Outpatient physiotherapy clinics from Shipley Hospital will be consolidated at Eccleshill Community Hospital where this service is already provided.
Outpatient physiotherapy services will also continue to be offered from current locations, including local GP practices such as Shipley Health Centre. Community therapy services will move to Westbourne Green Community Hospital.
The pandemic held up the plans – but the NHS has now confirmed to the Telegraph & Argus that the facility will close this Autumn, and what will be done with the money from its sale.
Last month, the Shipley Towns Fund Board – a body that oversees how millions of Government cash will be spent in the town, were given an update on one of the projects.
The Health and Wellbeing Campus scheme will see the Cellar Trust site on Farfield Road transformed into a facility offering mental health and wellbeing support.
Work on the development recently began, and a report to the Towns Fund Board said: “There is a potential for a phase two of this project, should funding become available.
“There is an expectation that a contribution to this would be from the sale of Shipley Hospital, which is still being progressed by the NHS.”
The Telegraph & Argus asked the Bradford District and Craven Health and Care Partnership for an update on the planned closure of the hospital, and whether the money from the sale would go to the new facility.
A spokesperson said: “We anticipate that the Shipley Hospital site will attract interest from an open sale when it goes on the market in the coming months.
“Bradford District and Craven Health and Care Partnership remain clear in our ambition to reinvest any money received from NHS Property Services - who own the site - to the Shipley Health and Wellbeing Campus once the proceeds from the sale become available. “We are currently working to a timeline of closing the site by autumn.
“However, this is dependent on completion of works at Westbourne Green so that we are able to relocate the services from Shipley.”
On hearing the update, new Shipley MP Anna Dixon said: “I am delighted the NHS has committed to reinvesting funds from the sale of Shipley Hospital into a new Health and Well-being Campus.
“The project is led by the Cellar Trust and HALE, two great local voluntary organisations with whom I have met.
“The exciting plans can now be realised for the benefit of local people in the Shipley area, giving a boost to our health and well-being.''
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