Hertford County Hospital

East Herts District Council have given planning approval for a new hospital in Hertford's North Road.

The new £8.5m hospital will feature a three-storey building and occupy 2½ acres. The facility will be funded through the Private Finance Initiative and will be built by hospital specialist Ryehurst

The existing hospital, which is a grade II listed building and was constructed in 1832, will be redeveloped as flats. All peripheral buildings will be demolished.

The Trust announced in 2000 that the North Road site was its preferred option for a new hospital, rather than moving to a new site in the town. Outline planning permission was granted in February

The current County Hospital sees 44,000 outpatients a year and provides services such as X-rays and ultrasound. There are no plans to expand the currently available facilities.

Background

East Herts NHS Trust proposed a new £7m hospital for Hertford during the latter half of the 1990s. The scheme, which initially expected work to begin by the year 2000, will replace the current County Hospital in North Road and the clinic in Bull Plain. These would have been sold off, together with the old Isolation Hospital site in Stanstead Road, where new homes have now been built.