East and North Herts Health Trust have proposed a new hospital for the town on the site of the existing facility in North Road.

The Trust has been looking at a number of sites within a half-mile radius of the town for the last two years and has now announced that the North Road site is its' preferred option.

However, an alternative site is also under consideration, although The Trust will not reveal the location. It is believed that a number of such sites exist close to the town centre, including the old sidings next to Hertford East Station

A replacement for Hertford County Hospital was given the go-ahead by The Department of Health in July 1999. The facility will be built under the government's Private Finance Initiative and hopefully be open by 2003/4.

Background

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