New hospital still on the cards but no decision on Rothbury
The prospect of a new hospital for Berwick has been fully explored by the NHS Northumberland Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and remains on the table.
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