Building work on Hertford's new hospital in North Road is scheduled to start in July, following the agreement of contracts between the local NHS Trust and developer Ryehurst.

Under the agreement, the £8.5m cost of the new hospital will be paid by Ryehurst, with the HNS Trust leasing the hospital for 30 years before taking it over.

The new £8.5m hospital will feature a three-storey building and occupy 2½ acres. Parts of the site will be given over to housing, including the existing hospital which is a grade II listed building dating back to 1832. 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 2002, with full consent given in October.

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.

The new hospital is expected to open in November 2004.

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, would see the replacement of 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.

However, subsequent plans concentrated on major redevelopment of the existing site via a Private Finance Initiative, which would see part of the site given over to housing.

Planning permission was finally granted in late 2002.