NHS sale of historic Derbyshire hospital site enters final negotiations

The 4.06 acres of Newholme Hospital’s land and buildings, on Baslow Road, are currently under offer, with Cheshire estate agents Fisher German handling the sale in conjunction with Government-owned company NHS Property Services Ltd (NPS).

The hospital was first earmarked for closure in 2016 due to changing models of healthcare, outdated facilities and high maintenance costs. Despite a public campaign to save it, the site was put on the market in autumn 2022.

While commercial sensitivity means few details are publicly available as yet, it appears a resolution could be in sight.

An NPS spokesperson said: “The Newholme site was identified as surplus by the local health commissioner which prompted the decision to progress its sale. Negotiations are underway with a potential buyer and contracts are expected to be exchanged imminently.”

Building work began last year for a new £10.5million ‘integrated health hub’ on land joining the hospital and the neighbouring former ambulance station.

Though it will not be a like-for-like community hospital, Derbyshire Community Health Services and East Midlands Ambulance Service are expected to begin delivering comparable services there in early 2024, including 14 outpatient specialities such as audiology, complex wound care, older people’s mental health and physiotherapy.

The NPS spokesperson said: “We understand that services at the Newholme site will continue to operate until the new health centre, planned for the neighbouring site in Bakewell, is complete.”

The sale listing for the site advertised its development potential for a range of uses, subject to securing planning permission, and a regeneration opportunity to revitalise a historic site.

No information has been released as yet about any buyers’ plans, and no planning applications have been formally lodged with the Peak District National Park Authority.

According to the listing, proposals from prospective buyers were “invited for the site, either on an unconditional basis or on a subject to planning basis,” while other documents note that the “viability of purchaser’s plans [and] town planning” will be factors in the sale.

The future use of the site will no doubt be of great concern to local residents, given its location within the Bakewell Conservation Area, half a mile from the centre of town.

The new owners would also have to consider the listed heritage status of some of the hospital buildings. Parts of the parkland site date back to 1841, when it opened as a union workhouse, but other areas were built up in the mid-20th century.

As well as the new health hub, the hospital is already bordered by residential areas and open countryside, and the possible conversion of the site for residential use could be viewed as a way to address documented issues with housing supply in the area.

To date, NHS Property Services claims to have raised £502m for the NHS from 562 assets sold nationwide, creating 8,023 new housing units on land deemed surplus.

The company’s policies suggest that 50 per cent of net proceeds from property disposals of up to £5m are reinvested in “local health economies”, and the other 50 per cent pooled nationally then split between regions for reinvestment.

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