Skip to main content Skip to navigation
14th December 2022

Warm Spaces opening at two Derbyshire community hospitals

Warm Spaces are opening up from Monday (19 December) at Ilkeston Community Hospital and Clay Cross Hospital for anyone to use free of charge.

The Warm Spaces initiative is seeing venues across our local communities opening their doors to welcome people who would otherwise find it hard to keep warm while the cost-of-living crisis is impacting people’s ability to heat their homes.

Now the dining rooms at both Ilkeston and Clay Cross Hospitals have been designated as Warm Spaces during their opening hours of 8am until 4.30pm, seven days a week.

They can be found at:

Clay Cross Hospital
Market Street
Clay Cross
Chesterfield
S45 9NZ

Ilkeston Community Hospital
Heanor Road
Ilkeston
Derbyshire
DE7 8LN.

Mark Armstrong-Read, a spokesperson for Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust which runs both hospital sites, said: “We have suitable public dining rooms at both Clay Cross and Ilkeston Hospitals which we can make available as Warm Spaces. We’ll be providing flasks of hot water and a microwave at each site, so people can make a hot drink and bring their own food and refreshments in with them. They don’t need to buy these in the dining room.”

Both sites have WiFi and a limited supply of electrical sockets so people using the Warm Space can get online, work or just warm up for as long as they like during opening hours. The only days when the dining rooms are closed will be Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.                                                                                                          

The Warm Spaces initiative is being spearheaded by public health teams within our local authorities and you can find more details of Warm Space venues, as well as other cost-of-living support, on these links:

Thanks to Alan Woolven, hotel services support manager at Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust, and the integrated facilities management teams on both hospital sites, for supporting this initiative and setting it up so quickly for the benefit of local communities.

Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust is working to become an Anchor Institution, strengthening links in the local communities it serves and helping to address local social, economic and environmental priorities in order to reduce health inequalities. More details on Anchor Institutions are here: NHS England » Anchors and social value