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Community launches campaign to buy former hospital

BBC The Dilke Memorial Hospital building with a metal gate outside and sign saying it is temporarily closedBBC
The Dilke Memorial Hospital has been vacant since it was replaced by a new £25m facility

A community group is fundraising to buy a former hospital and turn it into a mental health facility.

The Dilke Memorial Hospital, built in Cinderford in 1923, has been vacant since it was replaced by a new £25m hospital earlier this year.

Campaigners want to transform the building into a mental health and wellbeing centre so that vulnerable people have a “safe place to go".

Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust, which owns the site and has put it up for sale, said it "will take both financial and social value into account when considering offers".

The garden at the Dilke Memorial Hospital with three benches on grass with buildings in the background
The group wants to turn the old hospital into a mental health facility

Facebook group Make the Dilke a Community Wellbeing Centre was started by local campaigner, Lisa Harris and now has more than 800 members.

“I started the group because I feel there is a real lack of support for mental health,” she said.

“A lot of the support is phone lines counselling where it is one size fits all, and it is just not enough."

Ms Harris said she had suffered with her own mental health in the past.

“I suffered anxiety and depression and then became morbidly obese. Because of where I’ve been, I know how people feel.”

Campaigner Denise Major wearing a black coat with the hood up, smiling in front of a gate by the Dilke Memorial Hospital.
Denise Major spent 20 years working at the hospital

Denise Major, who worked at the hospital during the 1980s, said she is "very passionate" about keeping it in the community.

"We had 60 patients at the time, and I just felt like the community was benefitting from all the services," she said.

"Sadly I lost my daughter to suicide in March this year. She was 51, so I just felt that there is a great need out there for support and help."

Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust said the site is being marketed by Alder King, and proceeds will be re-invested in local healthcare services.

A spokesperson said the hospital was once registered as an Asset of Community Value, but the status was not renewed when the registration expired.

They added: "Anyone interested in purchasing the site should contact Alder King for details and viewings to help them develop their financial offer and evidence of social value.”

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