NHS bosses spark outrage over attempt to sell historic hospital site
NHS bosses have sparked fresh outrage over an attempt to sell a historic town centre hospital site apparently owned by the community.
Estate agents were today due to start marketing the former Rutson Hospital, in Northallerton , North Yorkshire – despite key figures being unaware of the move and proposals having been formed to redevelop the 1,766sq metre plot for community services, including a hospice.
The move by the North Yorkshire and York NHS Trust follows an outcry over recommendations to downgrade paediatric and maternity services at the nearby Friarage Hospital – and comes only weeks before the Localism Act takes effect, which will see unused “community assets” passed to local groups.
Recently discovered title deeds show the hospital, which has a Georgian-listed frontage, was donated by Henry Rutson in 1906, “in perpetuity...
for the purposes of a hospital for the benefit of the town of Northallerton and its neighbourhood”, ahead of it being requisitioned by the National Heath Service in 1948.