Future of Shotley Bridge Hospital due to be delivered in 'weeks'

Plans for the new Shotley Bridge Hospital are hanging in the balance after the government announced a review of all projects included in the New Hospital Programme. 

Councillors have now been told the County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust must plan for an alternative project if the scheme is scrapped. 

Planning permission was granted for the Consett facility in March 2023 after being included as part of the New Hospital Programme announced by the previous Conservative government. However, construction work is yet to start on the new facility in Consett. Estimated costs for the development have risen to between £50-60 million. 

How the new hospital could look (Image: Handout)

A 16-bed in-patient rehabilitation ward and urgent treatment centre are proposed for the site, which is scheduled to replace the current facility in Shotley Bridge.

The Government added the project to the New Hospital Programme in 2020 despite plans being drawn up long before the scheme was launched. Labour pledged to build the hospital in June but it was later included in a list of the projects to be reviewed by Health Secretary Wes Streeting. 

Mr Streeting said the Government wanted to fulfill the programme but said it is “undeliverable, unaffordable, and estimated costs had risen by billions”. He added Labour is “not prepared to offer people false hope about how soon they will benefit from the facilities they deserve”.

Speaking at a health scrutiny meeting in Durham on Monday, councillor Dominic Haney, whose Consett South ward is where the hospital would be built, said he isn’t too hopeful for the future.

“I’m depressed and anxious about Shotley Bridge Hospital,” he told the meeting. “It hasn’t happened and I fear it never will.”

Despite the uncertainty, local authorities remain on board with the scheme and its importance in the Consett community. 

Programme Manager at County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, Jane Curry said: “We are absolutely committed as a programme team to the development of this scheme and we are very much waiting for the outcome of the review. We believe we will hear something in the coming weeks, but how long that is is anybody's guess, and something more formal in the new year. 

“Currently, we are working without funds so we have not been able to further develop the scheme at all. We are limited in what we can do as a project team and as an organisation to take it forward.”

Meanwhile, Sue Jacques, chief executive at the County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, said a compromise is required should the government scrap the plans. 

She said: “There needs to be a plan B for the hospital. It’s in great nick in some ways, it’s warm, and some of the areas are really good but it’s everything that sits behind it which is the basis for the case for redevelopment anyway.”

However, she admitted she hadn’t received any updates about whether the project would be saved. “I have no inside information about whether it will be supported or not,” she added.