Dossier of damaging evidence on Hemel Hub to be sent to Council and NHS

22 December 2025
|In News, News Updates
|By philip
  • The last time the NHS and Dacorum Council considered possible sites for a new local hospital, technical experts advised them AGAINST using Market Square
  • At the time, 2016-18, independent technical consultancies said the best place for a NEW HOSPITAL would be on part of the existing hospital site 
  • That plot is close to the Marlowes, with potential for easy access from King Harry Street
  • That option – not considered in the current process – got an expert rating of over 80%. 
  • By contrast, the Market Square option came out JOINT BOTTOM of a list of possible sites, with just 50%,  failing to impress on:
  1. Deliverability
  2. Functional suitability and operational efficiency
  3. Strategic flexibility
  4. Wider economic benefit
  • The evidence is set out in a dossier of documents that will be sent in the New Year to the Council and the West Herts Trust:
  1. Key parts of a draft Feasibility Study on the Redevelopment of Hemel Hempstead Hospital commissioned by the Council and the NHS. These public bodies deny now having this 70+ page document.
  2. A 57-page draft Strategic Outline Case which went through a lengthy process of discussion by Council and NHS bodies in 2017 and 2018. 
  • There have been no fundamental changes in the situation at Hemel since 2018
  • This is worrying evidence that the NHS and Dacorum Council are WRONG to push forward with the plan to replace Hemel Hospital with a Market Square Hub.