Part of roof collapses on disused Hospital building
- Historic Cheere House - the oldest building in Hemel Hospital - has suffered a partial roof collapse
- The building, which is disused, overlooks car parks and town centre streets,
- Building inspectors say is 'not an immediate danger'
- But Hertfordshire Building Control warn it 'could deteriorate further'.
- In May, notices appeared on Cheere House warning people to Keep Out
- A structural engineer has been called in to assess the situation of the 1830s structure
- Dacorum Health Action Group has asked West Herts Trust, which is responsible for the buildings in Watford, St Albans and Hemel Hospitals, what plans they have for Cheere House.
NHS could save up to £500m by building A&E hospital on a NEW SITE
- Expert report says the NHS could save up to half a billion pounds with a new A&E and specialist hospital on a clear new site instead of rebuilding Watford General
- Hospital on suitable clear site could also be built up to a year earlier than struggling on with Wasteful Watford redevelopment
- Highly experienced building expert Robert Scott says West Herts Trust plan for building at Watford’s cramped and sloping Vicarage Road site would be costly and disruptive, with several risks to patient care
- Over many years, Trust has failed to come up with a Watford scheme that is both affordable and practical.
- 7+ year delay to Watford plan is a chance to explore cheaper, quicker – and better – options
- Watford’s woes would include – noisy and polluting interference with working of the existing hospital, need for expensive groundworks, complex safety measures, reduced working hours, inadequate access for construction traffic which would hamper hospital traffic
- Mr Scott, who is a member of the New Hospital Campaign, calculates that building on a clear site could cost around £1.45bn – against a likely cost of around £1.936bn for the rebuild of Watford General
- That’s a Watford Money Gap of about £500m
- Report calls for ‘A full professional independent review and alternative site search’ for alternative options for a new West Herts hospital and ‘a reliable re-evaluation of the current proposals’
The Scott report is here: FinalHospital Site Viability Study 5_3_25
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