DHAG seek clarity over Hub urgent care hours
- There's confusion and concern over possible cuts to urgent care hours in the proposed Market Square 'health centre' Hub.
- A Facebook post by David Taylor MP seemed to suggest urgent treatment in the centre would only be available six days a week
- This would be a major reduction in services
- Hemel Hospital urgent treatment centre (UTC) is currently open every day of the year between 8 am and 10 pm
- Mr Taylor's post said the 'Health Campus' would be 'A community hub open at least 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, bringing core health services like GPs, urgent care, and diagnostics together under one roof.'
- This wording sparked online uncertainty and concern that the closure of the Hospital would mean no Sunday UTC service
- In a bid to clear up the confusion, DHAG Chair Philip Aylett has asked West Herts Trust: Does the Strategic Outline Case for the Hemel Health Campus include an assumption that the urgent treatment centre on the Campus would be open on seven days a week? Does the SOC include scenarios which would see the UTC open on just six days a week?
Big response to DHAG message at Armed Forces Day
- Scores of people spoke of their opposition to the closure of Hemel Hospital at Saturday's Armed Forces Day celebration
- For the first time, Dacorum Health Action Group had a stall at the popular Gadebridge Park event
- Volunteers Philip, Chris, Jean and Viv gave out many copies of DHAG's hard-hitting Save Our Hospital flyers.
- The pic shows the stall ready for action before the event started
- People told of how important the Hospital is to them and their families
- There was little support for the 'neighbourhood health centre' proposed for the Market Square
- Seventy people registered interest in getting regular updates on the DHAG campaign to Save Our Hospital
- Several councillors told us of their opposition to the health centre plans
- But DHAG members also had very good discussions with Council Leader Sally Symington and former Mayor Cathy McArevey, who support the health centre
- There was disagreement, but they listened to our views with respect and attention.
- We hope they will change their minds about the health centre, given the strong arguments against it
- But at the very least it's good to have elected representatives who are prepared to listen.
Council loses planning powers - where does that leave the Hub?
- Dacorum Council has lost the power to make major planning decisions
- The Government decision could make it harder for the Council and NHS to push forward with the Market Square 'neighbourhood health centre' Hub
- Minister Matthew Pennycook accused the Council of 'not adequately performing their function of determining applications for planning permission for major development'
- The Council and West Herts NHS Trust wish to close Hemel Hempstead Hospital and use the whole site for housing and a primary school
- Whatever was left of the Hospital's services would be accommodated on two floors of the health centre Hub on the Market Square
- There will also be questions over the activity of Dacorum Investment Partnership, which sees housebuilders Hill Group sharing decision-making with Dacorum Council on future housing site allocations
Where's the consultation on new flats and houses?
- Housebuilders and Dacorum Council have yet to deliver on promised consultation with the public on major projects
- Planned communications are behind schedule
- Dacorum Investment Partnership (DIP) gives housebuilders Hill Group a shared role with the Council in key decisions on where new homes should be built
- DIP has decided that the the Water Gardens car parks would be a ‘priority’ for residential and other development
- They are also planning hundreds of extra car park spaces for the Market Square 'neighbourhood health centre'
- In February DIP claimed it was starting on ‘ early design work and consultation with residents and local businesses, giving people the opportunity to share their views and help shape proposals as they are developed.’
- DIP aims to submit planning applications for developments on the Civic Centre site and Cherry Bounce in October.
- BUT we are not aware that there has been any consultation on these imminent major projects
- DIP promised to launch an independent website, a stakeholder newsletter, social media channels and digital campaigns by the end of May.
- We are not aware that any of that communication has actually happened.
- HAVE WE MISSED SOMETHING?
Berkhamsted would be a big loser in Hospital closure
- Plans by the NHS and Dacorum Council to shut convenient Hemel Hospital will hit Berkhamsted hard
- Until now the Hospital has helped to provide urgent and planned medical care for the WHOLE of West Herts - 600,000 including nearby Berkhamsted
- Hemel Hospital is close - about 5 miles from Berkhamsted
- St Albans Hospital and Watford General are both 14 miles away
- The Council/NHS plan would see the Hospital demolished and replaced by a smaller 'neighbourhood health centre' just serving the population of HEMEL ITSELF
- The 'health centre' would squeeze remaining acute hospital services onto just two floors on Hemel's small Market Square
- This latest service cut for Berkhamsted comes ten years after the closure of the town's highly valued Gossoms End community hospital
- There are concerns about lack of infrastructure to support new housing in Berkhamsted
First birthday for PM's broken Hospital closure pledge
- This week it will be a year since the Prime Minister promised there would be 'public consultation' on the Hemel Health Campus or Hub.
- The Hub would replace the town's Hospital, which would close
- On 4 June 2025 Sir Keir explicitly told Hemel MP David Taylor in the Commons that 'The proposals for the health campus will be open to public consultation.'
- The authorities have failed to deliver on this clear promise
- There has been NO public consultation
- There were some public 'engagement' sessions last year
- But the public were not told of the full list of possible Hub locations in the 'engagement' process
- Proper Government consultations have to follow a set of published principles.
- One key principle is that public bodies should 'Give enough information to ensure that those consulted understand the
issues and can give informed responses.' - The Dacorum Borough Council webpage on the Hub was last updated NEARLY SIX MONTHS AGO, on 18 December 2025.
- The Government's Consultation Principles are below:
- Consultation_principles_
NHS bosses get closer to their dream of demolishing Hospital
- Hemel Hospital's oldest building has been declared unsafe
- This is a further step in the long-term campaign by NHS bosses and Dacorum Council to close our Hospital
- Cheere House, built in 1832, is now cordoned off and surrounded by notices dubbing it an 'unsafe structure'
- The notices say KEEP OUT
- This is the latest result of years of planned neglect by authorities bent on depriving Hemel of its Hospital
- The aim is to sell the land
- NHS bosses want developers to cover the Hospital site with around FOURTEEN flat blocks
- Several quite modern buildings would be bulldozed, as well as old ones
MPs must demand answers on Hemel Hospital cuts
- Why is Hemel Hospital the poor relation in the local NHS?
- New figures show that Hemel Hospital has nearly 100 fewer outpatient appointments per day than St Albans Hospital
- And nursing staff numbers at Hemel are to be cut back in a £271,000 switch to St Albans
- Dacorum MPs are being urged to demand answers on this latest twist in the decline of Hemel Hospital under West Herts Trust
- DHAG Chair Philip Aylett has written to MPs Victoria Collins, Gagan Mohindra and David Taylor
- Dr Aylett urges the MPs to press the NHS on why Hemel Hospital has only 125 outpatient appointments a day
- St Albans Hospital has 224 a day on average, and Watford General has between 160 and 170
- Dr Aylett's letter says that, for Dacorum people, 'This is pushing care further away from home – exactly the opposite of what should be happening.'
- The letter to MPs is here:
- Letter to MPs 23 May
Hospital closure plan - still no consultation
- Dacorum Council and NHS bosses STILL haven't delivered on the PM's pledge of public consultation on the closure of Hemel Hospital
- And now they are even failing to provide the promised 'Public Engagement for 2026' on plans for a substitute 'health centre' Hub in the small Market Square
- The Council and NHS bosses claim on the Hub webpage:
- We want to hear feedback from patients, carers, staff and other stakeholders, as part of our decision-making process..
- 'We will continue to keep all stakeholders informed and involved as we move through the formal stages of ‘Strategic Outline Case’ to ‘Outline Business Case’ in 2026.
- NONSENSE - There has been NO RECENT INVOLVEMENT and NO INFORMATION about the details of the Market Square Hub plan
- The Hub webpage has not been updated since December 2025
- Key details have been hidden when we have the right to know
- THE AUTHORITIES ARE NOT LISTENING
Hemel the NHS's poor relation as St Albans powers ahead
- St Albans Hospital gets major new hospital services
- Trust CEO listed them last week:
- New Community Diagnostic Centre opened in April
- Surgical Hub will open in June 2026.
- Development starts on new Endoscopy Unit
- Continuing the design and development of a new Urology Centre.
- Meanwhile Hemel Hospital faces nursing staff cuts and eventual demolition
- 'Replacement' Health Campus will be a 'health centre' serving Hemel town only
- Local access to hospital services is being reduced as our population ages and grows
- WHY SHOULD DACORUM PATIENTS BE THE ONES TO TRAVEL FOR CARE?
- WHY SHOULD HERTFORDSHIRE'S BIGGEST BOROUGH BE THE NHS'S POOR RELATION ?