Hospital is bought for the community
HEALTH: A hospital which was gifted to a community more than 100 years ago, before being handed to the NHS and then closed, has been bought back for community use.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt had intervened to stop the Lambert Memorial Hospital being sold to a housing developer.
A HOSPITAL which was gifted to a community more than 100 years ago, before being handed to the NHS and then closed, has been bought back for community use.
Hambleton District Council said Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt had intervened to stop the Lambert Memorial Hospital in Sowerby, Thirsk, being sold to a housing developer by a private government company, NHS Property Services.
The authority has struck a deal with NHS Property Services to buy the extensive property on Chapel Street for £350,000, which is lower than other tabled offers. The move, also engineered by council’s leader Coun Mark Robson and Thirsk and Malton MP Kevin Hollinrake, has been widely welcomed as the closure of the hospital almost three years ago sparked a barrage of criticism with South Tees NHS Trust saying it could not find staff for it.
Anger was inflamed earlier this year when NHS Property Services rejected a bid by the council to buy the property, which had been based on its value as a community asset.
Coun Robson said: “Jeremy Hunt has been slightly persuasive. In my opinion, NHS Property Services have finally seen sense to sell it to a local authority so we can put it back to some form of community use.”
Echoing the views of many residents, Coun Robson said he did not think it was right that the community should have to pay to regain control of the former hospital, but it was the “best option of a bad job”.
After the council’s cabinet passed plans to buy the site, he confirmed developing housing would not be an option, ahead of a public meeting and public consultation next month. Meanwhile the council has dismissed claims by the NHS it had “jumped the gun” by announcing it had saved the hospital for community use.