The NHS has denied claims Charing Cross Hospital could be turned into designer flats as part of a big shake-up of A&E services.
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs the hospital in Hammersmith, has confirmed it is not in any discussions about alternative uses for the tower block at the hospital.
The Trust’s denial comes in response to claims from the Evening Standard that a developer has approached Imperial to suggest converting the 16-storey block into homes rather than demolishing it.
Earlier this year Imperial’s board confirmed 55 per cent of the site will be sold, a new £150 million building will be built and A&E services would be changed to be appropriate for a ‘local hospital’ under the Shaping a Healthier Future programme aimed at centralising hospital services.
Dr Mark Spencer, clinical lead for the programme, said: “One option is you could use the rest of the site [for housing] and maintain the tower block. Other options are that the tower block could be turned into residential housing and other parts of the site could be used.
“We’ve had people come and say: ‘Why knock it down? We could convert it.’ If you go to the top floor and have a view across London, it’s quite nice. But those are all in discussion. No decision has been made.”
However Imperial has explicitly denied being in discussions about the future of the site.
A spokeswoman said: “We can confirm we are not in any discussions about the disposal of land at Charing Cross Hospital or about alternative uses for the tower block.
“We are still some way off clarifying what our new models of care should look like in practice on the Charing Cross site in order to meet changing needs. That has to be the priority before we begin to consider in detail, the design of the proposed new facilities and the sale of surplus land. And we have committed to involving patients, local communities and other stakeholders in that process too.”
In August, getwestlondon revealed Imperial NHS needed £400 million more to redevelop the Charing Cross site and had a deficit of £2.5m against a planned surplus of £1.2m at the end of the first quarter of 2014/15.
As the trust has reiterated many times since June , it said it cannot confirm what the A&E will look like at Charing Cross until an England-wide review of urgent and emergency care is completed by Sir Bruce Keogh and Professor Keith Willett.
As part of the Shaping a Healthier Future programme Hammersmith Hospital and Central Middlesex Hospital’s A&E departments closed on September 10, with their urgent care centre’s staying open 24/7.
