New hospital still on the cards but no decision on Rothbury

Together with Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and Northumberland County Council, the CCG led a major engagement exercise with the public into the possibility of a new hospital in the town.

The aim would be to create a new integrated hospital which would have health, social care and leisure services.

But while better health care services may be on the way for Berwick, in Rothbury a decision on Rothbury Community Hospital is still awaited.

The business case for the community hospital was considered at a public meeting in September 2017 with the county council referring the CCG’s decision to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care in October.

A report to the CCG’s annual meeting explained: ‘Until the final decision is known, the inpatient beds remain closed and the CCG is unable to work with the local community to take forward its proposals to develop a health and wellbeing centre on the hospital site.’

Graeme Anderson, Local Democracy Reporting Service