The hunt is on for a new provider to run the urgent care service at St Albans City Hospital.

The board of Herts Valleys Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is supporting plans for an integrated urgent care hub on the site, providing a minor illness and injuries service.

Interested providers will now be invited to submit bids to run the service, with patient representatives involved in the selection process alongside local NHS clinicians and managers.

The successful provider will be announced in the summer, and they would then work to get the new service fully up and running from September.

The integrated urgent care hub will be run by specialist nurses with support from GPs, providing same day urgent care for health concerns that need prompt attention but aren’t life threatening. Much like GP services, the integrated urgent care hub will work on an appointment basis with patients booked into the service through NHS111 or their GP practice. It will be open for a at least nine hours a day.

Herts Valleys CCG has been considering how best to develop urgent care services at St Albans City Hospital for some time. The temporary closure of the minor injuries unit (MIU) in April 2020 in the wake of the pandemic provided an opportunity to reassess what service to provide at St Albans once services were able to resume.

Last September the CCG board endorsed plans for an integrated urgent care hub at St Albans City Hospital and gave the go-ahead to draw up a business case. This followed public engagement on the future shape of the service.

During November and December meetings took place with potential providers to progress the CCG’s proposals for an integrated urgent care hub and to test the level of market interest.

Dir Richard Pile, lead GP for urgent care at Herts Valleys CCG said: “We’ve been talking about urgent care services at St Albans hospital for some time. Getting the go-ahead to seek a provider to run the new service means that our vision of delivering a minor illness and injuries service for St Albans will finally become a reality in just a few months from now.”