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The city’s long-held ambition to have a new health centre within Preston city centre is continued within its new 2035 strategy.
Unveiled last week the nine-page document outlines how Preston City Council and others want the city to develop in the coming years.
Within it there’s continued mention of wanting to have a health facility in the city centre, with uncertainty continuing over the future of the current Royal Preston Hospital and where its new site will be.
Read more: Preston and Chorley hospital staff offered payouts to quit amid £58m savings drive
Blog Preston understands a number of potential empty city centre buildings have been eyed up. The previously favoured site – on Lord Street and Tithebarn Street – was turned over to becoming the new Youth Zone. Previous ambitions for a health hub date back to at least 2018.
The city has large health inequalities, with areas close to the city centre seeing men live a decade shorter than men in more affluent areas and 8.7 years for women. A fifth of the city’s population live in what’s classed as some of the UK’s most deprived areas.
Cabinet member for health and wellbeing, councillor Zafar Coupland, told Blog Preston: ” This is a mid to long-term project in the initial stages of planning. Preston City Council is in detailed discussions with health partners to set out the case for investment in facilities in Preston, that will help to tackle the poor health and inequalities faced by many of our residents.
“Our NHS lead is currently mapping out the health assets in the Central Lancashire area for a better understanding on where there are gaps in services and where any future investment needs to be directed.
“A Health and Wellbeing Partnership was established in 2023 and involves a wide range of key partners working together. It is critical to have this joined up, collaborative approach where we can all contribute and pool our resources to find the best solutions and deliver a comprehensive health and wellbeing service for the residents of Preston.”
Any new health hub for the city centre would be a partnership between the city council, Lancashire County Council, working with private and public-sector organisations involved with health in the city such as St Catherine’s Hospice.
Read more: Opinion: Why we need our new hospital to remain in Preston city centre
A new hospital for the city was rumoured to be likely to be built outside of the city boundaries in South Ribble.
This drew criticism from candidates in the race to be Preston’s new MP but also saw the now re-elected Sir Mark Hendrick hint it was likely some sort of health site would be retained within Preston city centre or the Preston city area as a result of any new hospital being built.
The Labour government has indicated it plans to scrap the previous government’s new 40 hospital scheme by placing it under review, but new Health secretary Wes Streeting appeared to give hope the city’s new hospital may still be built by saying they were ‘considering each location carefully’.
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