Hertford County Hospital

East and North Herts Health Trust have said that Hertford's new hospital should open on time in 2004.

The existing hospital will be replaced by a new unit to be built under the Private Finance Initiative. Three developers are currently in talks with the trust to build a new hospital on half of the four acre site in North Road. The rest of the site would be used fr other development, probably housing.

The Trust announced in 2000 that the North Road site was its preferred option, rather than moving to a new site in the town.

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 are currently being built.