Update on Shipley Hospital

Closure of Shipley Hospital confirmed

With outpatient physiotherapy and community therapy services moving from Shipley Hospital site in December 2024, the local NHS has confirmed that the hospital is now vacant, and the site will be put up for sale.

Bradford District and Craven Health and Care Partnership Board – a committee of NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) – has been overseeing the process. This has included a public engagement exercise outlining the need for the site to close and how the NHS will look at opportunities to secure at least 50% of the proceeds of the sale of the site for local services.

The hospital will now be handed back to NHS Property Services, the owners of the building, who will put the site up for sale on the open market. This follows an extensive search that offered first refusal to any public sector or community organisation that wanted to take on the site. The sale will mark the end of hospital which has served the community for over 100 years.

Helen Farmer, Director of System Transformation for Bradford District and Craven Health and Care Partnership, said: “I can confirm that we have now completed our improvement works at Westbourne Green Community Hospital so that we can safely move community therapy services. Our outpatient physiotherapy services will also be provided from Westbourne Green however we will still be able to offer physiotherapy services through local facilities in the Shipley area.

“We recognise that the hospital is a much-loved facility – which we acknowledged throughout our community engagement work – however it was not possible to improve the standard to that of a modern, purpose-built, health facility. We know that Shipley Hospital holds many memories for local people, we will be asking people to share these memories with us so we can create a digital memory book to remember the role the hospital played in the lives of local people. We will provide further details on how people can do this in due course.”

Bradford District and Craven Health and Care Partnership is working with NHS Property Services to look at how it can secure at least 50% of the proceeds from the sale of the site to invest in local services. The partnership has stated that the preference for this investment is for the Shipley Health and Wellbeing Campus, which will be known as ‘Farfield’.

Anyone wanting to share their memories of Shipley Hospital before the official public call out for submissions, can do so by emailing actasone@nhs.net