Whitby Hospital £13m renovation: trust celebrates completion of project

Chair of NHS Humber Teaching Foundation Trust, Caroline Flint, was speaking at a celebratory event at Whitby Pavilion, to mark the completion of the joint endeavour which saw building work begin in March 2020, being completed this summer.

She had just started her role last autumn when she first visited the revamped hospital site – known as the Tower Block – and recently returned to ask staff how everything was going.

She said one of the amazing things is that the hospital probably has the best view from an NHS window out of anywhere in the country.

She said: “I think what’s great about it, talking to staff, is the importance of the hospital to the health service in Whitby.

"It’s a landmark and it’s great listening to some of the staff who have worked for the NHS, in Whitby, for a long time, regaling me with stories from years gone by.

"It's a nice sense of continuity that health is really important in Whitby that the building is updated and modernised and looks like a new hospital.

"There are still a lot of challenges in the NHS and community health and social care, but this is a really great example of a willingness to put money behind it so that Whitby hospital has a future.”

The celebratory event at the pavilion included an exhibition documenting the hospital’s history and how the current project has developed.

Dr Charles Parker, who was chair of the now superseded clinical care group, added that it was “fantastic” that people had the vision and commitment to that vision, through all the partners working together and sticking at it, to get the project delivered.

“The local population would not allow us to forget or ignore this corner of the country and that’s a really huge benefit,” he said.

A range of services are delivered from the refurbished area of the hospital, including an Urgent Treatment Centre, Podiatry Services, Physiotherapy, Audiology and the Memorial Ward.