NHS bosses fail in bid for fast-track closure of Hemel Hospital
- Inspectors throw out NHS bid to make it easier to close our Hospital
- NHS bosses wanted the right to close local health facilities without going through local planning
- NHS Property Services claimed ‘the form of any health provision [is] a decision for local health commissioners and should not be constrained by planning policy.’
- These ‘local health commissioners’ are unelected civil servants and Board members
- The NHS wanted the Dacorum Local Plan to say our health premises could be closed ‘Where healthcare facilities are formally declared surplus to the operational requirements of the NHS or identified as surplus as part of a published estates strategy or transformation plan,’
- This would have made it a lot easier to close Hemel Hospital without consulting us
- Dacorum Health Action Group Chair Philip Aylett raised the issue with Government inspectors at yesterday’s public session on the Local Plan
- The Inspectors made it clear that this fast-track Hospital closure bid would not be allowed
- The NHS and Council will have to go through proper planning to make the case for their plans to close Hemel Hospital and replace it with a ‘neighbourhood health centre’ on Market Square