NHS expert verdict – existing buildings are good for health centres
- Top NHS experts say new neighbourhood health centres (NHCs) should use existing buildings where possible
- That could be bad news for those who support the Market Square Hub
- NHS Property Services (NHSPS) recently called for ‘Optimising the existing estate’ for the centres because ‘in many instances refurbishments and extensions are cheaper and quicker [than new builds]’
- A major December 2025 NHSPS report also said ‘The existing estate offers many opportunities to develop NHCs now’
- The controversial plan for a new £135m Hub NHC in the Market Square is well out of line with this expert opinion
- The Market Square Hub would also be hugely more expensive than other NHCs
- The maximum projected cost of an NHC is likely to be somewhere between £20m and £40m
- It is not known why the Hemel NHC should cost the taxpayer at least THREE TIMES AS MUCH as any other NHC
- This failure to control Market Square costs may help to explain why the scheme has not yet been given the go-ahead by the regional NHS
- These are links to the NHSPS document:
https://www.property.nhs.uk/media/px4cufab/nhsps-making-nhcs-a-reality.pdf