Planned closure of Yorkshire hospital to go to public consultation

The century-old hospital building has seen a reduction in services provided in recent decades and currently only offers community physiotherapy and outpatient physiotherapy.

One Councillor questioned how much of a difference the closure would make in light of the hospital’s limited services.

Plans to close the hospital were first announced in 2019 – but the closure was put off due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Now Bradford District and Craven Health and Care Partnership has announced the closure is back on the cards – and a public consultation will be held in the New Year.

Services would be moved to other health facilities, and the building sold.

Members of the Trust explained their plans at a meeting of Bradford Council’s Health Scrutiny Committee on Thursday.

Councillors heard that outpatient physiotherapy would relocate from the hospital to Eccleshill Hospital – where similar services are already offered.

The Trust plans to relocate community physiotherapy services to Westbourne View in Manningham – although this will be subject to a public consultation.

At the meeting Helen Farmer, Programme Director Access to Care, told members that to bring the building back up to standard it would “require a major refurbishment work that would be extremely expensive.”

She said the building did not fit within the Government’s “new hospital programme” – a scheme to build new hospitals, or refurbish older hospitals, across the UK.

She added: “It doesn’t meet current health building standards.”

Members heard that during the last consultation some Shipley residents said they thought the building had a covenant on it – meaning that if it were closed, any proceeds would have to go to the people of Shipley.

Mrs Farmer added: “We had consultations with local experts in the Council and couldn’t find any paperwork.”

If anyone brought forward information about the covenant during the new consultation, the Trust would investigate.

Councillor Aneela Ahmed (Lab, City) said: “When people told you there is a covenant have they not been able to back that up?”

Mrs Farmer said: “One person told us they remembered being told about the covenant from their childhood.”

Cllr Ahmed said: “That’s a random thing to remember from your childhood.”

Councillor Alun Griffiths (Lib Dem, Idle and Thackley) said: “For most people, moving community physiotherapy to another site won’t make a blind bit of difference. But people will be saying they want to go to their local hospital for treatment. We need to make it clear that this is about a certain service.”

Councillor Paul Godwin (Lab, Keighley West) pointed out that until recently the hospital also provided an X Ray service.

Mrs Farmer said: “During Covid this service was re-deployed to St Lukes and BRI due to work force changes.”

Cllr Godwin replied: “So it was a cut that was made that no-one noticed?”

Mrs Farmer replied: “There were a very small number of x-ray services that could only be done on certain parts of the body.”

The public consultation will begin in the New Year.