Agenda item

Considered -

A presentation by Ali Jan Haider (Bradford District and Craven CCG), Michael Dyson (NHS Property Services Ltd), Trudy Balderson (Airedale NHS Foundation Trust).

            Ali Jan Haider delivered the presentation, with key points as summarised below:

·         The hospital was temporarily closed on 13 April 2017 due to significant problems with the building structure.  A public consultation was held over the period September to December 2017.  The decision was taken to re-open the hospital in May 2018.  Work commenced on the site and it was formally re-opened on 26 November 2019.

·         The work was delayed by a number of factors including nesting birds and the need to manage more asbestos in the structure of the building than had previously been anticipated

·         The landlord, commissioner and provider had worked well together on the project,  This was not always the case and so there were some positive learning points from this

·         Since the re-opening of the hospital there have been some snagging issues that the contractor has responded to

·         There is further investment planned in the site, including replacement of windows and further development of the first floor

·         The hospital was re-opened only 3 months prior to the pandemic and the national lockdown and so the focus has been upon maintaining a covid-safe site and enabling high quality care to be delivered as part of the NHS response.

There followed a discussion, during the course of which County Councillors made the following points:

·         The hard work that County Councillor Richard Welch had done in supporting local efforts to develop and re-open the site was noted

·         The Scrutiny of Health Committee took a robust stance on this back in April 2017, which helped raise the profile of the closure

·         The commitment of the NHS locally to re-opening the site was applauded as it was recognised that it would have been easy to permanently close the hospital

·         It was noted that the NHS locally working with partner agencies and community groups had achieved a great deal and the newly developed hospital was much valued.

County Councillor David Ireton asked what plans there were to use the first floor.  Previously the committee had been informed that the lack of lift access meant that it could not be used as a multi-agency drop-in.

In response, Michael Dyson said that the first floor could be used as office space but was not suitable for wider public use and access due to the lack of a lift.  At present, there was no funding available for a lift and the recent opening of a new community hub in Settle meant that there may be much less need for such a use of the first floor now.

County Councillor Mike Chambers MBE summed up and noted that this was a successful outcome for the Castleberg and that the hospital now had a bright future as a key part of health and social care delivery in the Craven area.  He all thanked for attending the meeting.

 Resolved –

a.    Thank all involved for their hard work and commitment to making a success out of the Castleberg over the past 4 years

b.    Daniel Harry to feedback to the Scrutiny of Health Committee the outcome of the scrutiny that the Skipton and Ripon Area Constituency Committee had undertaken.