Hospital boss backs town centre unit

Thom Lafferty, chief executive of Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust, said the hospital wanted to play its part in improving long-term health outcomes in Harlow

A hospital boss has said it would be a "fantastic idea" to develop a town centre minor injuries unit.

Thomas Lafferty, chief executive of Princess Alexandra Hospital (PAH) in Harlow, Essex, said he saw "providing health services on the high street as the key to regeneration in the town".

He told the BBC the hospital trust was in talks with Harlow Town Council about possible locations but that any proposals would have to go through full consultation.

The hospital has one of the busiest emergency departments in the country in relation to its size, seeing 100,000 patients each year.

If the town centre minor injuries unit got the go-ahead, Mr Lafferty said the trust would look at doing blood tests there as there was "no need to come to a major hospital to do that".

He also said it could be a home for outpatient clinics, which would be "far more convenient for people and less hassle".

Harlow Council has already been given a £34m to "rebuild" the town centre with the introduction of a new arts and cultural quarter and the transformation of Broad Walk and the Market Square and Bus Station areas.

The regeneration of Harlow will have a live performance venue at its centre with a public square and 47 homes

Mr Lafferty said creating health hubs in the community matched the government's 10-year-plan for the NHS.

He said the trust was looking at "which spaces and areas" and "which basket of services was right".

Another building that could ease the strain on the PAH is the new community diagnostic centre at St Margaret's Hospital in Epping, which is due to see its first patients by the end of the year.

Mr Lafferty said £70m was needed over the next 10 years to maintain the ageing infrastructure of PAH, so some services could be moved off the site.

The nearest off-site minor injuries units are in Bishop's Stortford and Cheshunt, both in Hertfordshire.

From next April, health services in Harlow will no longer be run by Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care Board (ICB).

Services in Essex will be commissioned by an ICB covering Greater Essex, while Hertfordshire services will be commissioned jointly with Milton Keynes, Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire, in a bid to reduce running costs by 50%.