CAMPAIGNERS say it is a “scandal” that there is no funding for a new community hospital in Frenchay – almost 21 years after the project was agreed.
The Save Frenchay Community Hospital Group is calling on the NHS body responsible for funding local services to invite Health Secretary Wes Streeting to the area to show him the need for a rehabilitation unit to serve an area where thousands of new homes have been built, with more on the way.
But the area’s integrated care board (ICB) told the Voice there is no funding available to take the project forward, even though a site has been waiting to be developed for more than ten years.
Barbara Harris of the Save Frenchay Community Hospital Group has been campaigning for a new community hospital for more than 20 years.
It was first agreed in 2005 as part of a plan to move all North Bristol NHS Trust acute hospital services on to one site, with a new hospital built at Southmead and the old Frenchay Hospital shut.
The upgraded Southmead Hospital opened in 2014, the same year the old Frenchay Hospital closed.
While most of the old buildings have been replaced by housing, the site reserved for a community hospital remains empty.
Funding for a community hospital, with 84 rehabilitation beds for patients who no longer needed to be on acute wards, as well as 28 mental health beds, was approved in 2010 – but cancelled after that year’s general election by the incoming Coalition government.
Two years later plans were revived for a 50-bed facility but despite repeated assurances that the project had not been forgotten, nothing happened.
Mrs Harris said she had been assured by the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire ICB in early 2025 that a business case for the Frenchay site was going forward.
However in December she received a letter from the ICB saying it had “not been able to progress” the work and couldn’t give any updates.
Mrs Harris told the ICB’s December board meeting: “I’m furious that this is about the fifth halt, with no prospect of anything happening in the future.
“We need community provision now.”
She called on the ICB to invite Mr Streeting and NHS chief executive Sir Jim Mackey on a drive around the area to see how the population had grown.
Mrs Harris told the Voice: “Our point is that Wes Streeting is not aware of the lack of healthcare provision in this area, the loss of so many beds and the massive housing developments that have increased the population of South Glos.
“There is no one who is speaking up for us and the ICB just accept what the Department of Health tell them to do, without a fight. It is the ICB’s job to ensure adequate and safe provision and they are not doing it.
“Twenty one years of neglect is a scandal.”
Earlier this year Mr Streeting announced a shake-up of ICBs, including a series of mergers and cost-cutting due to be implemented from April.
The Voice asked the ICB whether it still intends to commission a healthcare facility at Frenchay, what the current timescale and budget is and what action it was taking to press the case for funding a new community hospital at Frenchay with the Department for Health and Social Care.
A spokesperson said: “Due to the significant changes currently under way for all ICBs, we have not been able to progress some areas of work as previously anticipated. This includes Frenchay.
“Additionally, capital funding is not available to develop the Frenchay site at present.
“Rehabilitation provision is available in a number of locations across the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire area for people requiring this support; this includes the Henderson Rehabilitation Unit in Thornbury and Skylark Rehabilitation Unit in Yate.”
The Frenchay site is owned by South Gloucestershire Council, which bought it from North Bristol NHS Trust.
A council spokesperson said: “It has long been an ambition of the council to support BNSSG Integrated Care Board in developing the NHS-owned site of the former Frenchay Hospital.
“We have worked closely with the ICB over a number of years to build the evidence base for service planning at Frenchay and for all our local communities, and we remain committed to that collaboration going forwards.”
Filton & Bradley Stoke MP Claire Hazelgrove, whose constituency includes the site, said she had met with the ICB about its plans and was told they were reviewing data “to assess today’s local need and options”.
She said: “However, the ICB has confirmed that it has been unable to make the expected progress on this review due to wider changes and resource challenges. I am writing to them to understand what their new timeline is, as we have not had clarity here for years.
“I support the ICB’s evidence-led approach. It’s important that any site, using limited funds, meets the need of today’s local population.”
The Department for Health & Social Care had not responded to a request for a comment as the Voice went to print.