'PLAN B' FOR WATFORD GENERAL WILL MEAN 'SIGNIFICANT DISRUPTION' TO PATIENTS AND STAFF
Patients and staff at Watford General face nearly ten years of turmoil as the West Herts Trust is forced to fall back on refurbishing old buildings.
A likely Plan B will mean building work going on to 2033.
- Unaffordable £1.4bn triple tower hospital likely to be replaced by cheaper option, responding to cuts demanded by Reeves Review of failed 'New Hospital Programme'
- Report drawn up in 2022 gives details of cheaper option, including refurbished main block and smaller new build
- Architects admit likely £800m Plan B option will bring 'significant disruption to the existing services while the site continues to operate during construction.'
- Plan will 'inevitably prolong the overall duration of works increasing cost.'
- Option 'provides a convoluted path to some services. This includes the diagnostic services that are split across three locations.'
The plans (Option 3) are set out in a paper known as the RIBA Stage One report.
WATFORD GENERAL ISN'T THE BEST FOR MANY - IN WATFORD
FOR MANY WATFORD PEOPLE, WATFORD GENERAL WOULD NOT BE THE BEST OPTION FOR A NEW HOSPITAL - LOOK AT THIS MAP
- Watford General is not easy to get to from much of Watford - close to the southern edge of the Borough
- Possible new hospital sites in Wayside Farm, south of Kings Langley and Bricket Wood/Chiswell Green (near the M1/M25 junction) would be closer than Watford General for many thousands of Watford people
- People in Garston, Leavesden and other parts of Watford would find it easier to get to alternative sites - to say nothing of the hundreds of thousands who live outside the Borough
- Other sites could emerge if the NHS encouraged them
There is now NO funded plan for Watford General, with the Government reviewing the project - Time for a major rethink of the stalled Watford General project - let's go for a new West Herts Hospital
WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO HEMEL'S £51 MILLION?
There's mystery over the fate of £51 million earmarked for developing Hemel Hempstead Hospital.
Just two years ago, in May 2022, West Herts NHS Trust agreed plans to spend that amount on Hemel Hospital - and over £1.1bn on the Watford General rebuild.
The Hemel Hospital plans would have seen new diagnostic facilities and a new urgent treatment centre at the Verulam Building.
Now the favoured way forward is a Health Campus which would bring these hospital services together with other NHS facilities in a major rationalisation on the former Market Square. One aim is to help regenerate the town centre.
But 'commercial confidentiality' may block the public from knowing how much might be spent on the new building.
This retreat from openness would be a change of policy on the part of the West Herts Trust, which gave very detailed figures for costs of redevelopments in a Trust Board paper in May 2022. The figures also show that the Trust expected to make £10m from land sales at Hemel Hospital.
Unless these figures are updated, the public will not be able to know which of the various proposals for health and hospital services in Hemel is best.
The May 2022 cost figures are in the screenshot below, which is taken from the published Board papers for that month. 'WGH' is Watford General, 'HHH' is Hemel Hempstead Hospital and 'SACH' is St Albans City Hospital
WATFORD GENERAL PLANS DELAY PROGRESS FOR CANCER CENTRE
Vital work to provide a new building for the Mount Vernon Cancer Centre MVCC) is being held up by wrangling among NHS bureaucrats.
The delay - which could mean cancer patients waiting ten years for much-needed new premises - is being caused by the determination of West Herts Trust to press ahead with rebuilding Watford General.
New analysis by Dacorum Health Action Group explains that:
- Cancer centres, where patients are treated with chemotherapy and radiotherapy, need to be located next to acute hospitals where facilities like intensive care units are available
- The MVCC buildings at Northwood, Middlesex, are in very poor condition and are far from the necessary acute services, making care difficult for patients and staff
- Watford General has been put forward by the NHS as the site for a new MVCC
- But the NHS is giving priority to the 7-year rebuild of Watford General, with the MVCC move taking second place
- Dacorum Health Action Group (DHAG) is calling on the NHS to explore clear new accessible sites where a new MVCC could be located alongside a new West Hertfordshire A&E hospital
DHAG's new analysis of the MVCC situation is below:
HEMEL'S NEW MP FACES DAUNTING HEALTH IN-TRAY
Congratulations to David Taylor MP.
Hemel Hempstead elected a new MP yesterday as part of the Labour landslide that sees Keir Starmer take over in Downing Street.
David Taylor will have to tackle a wide variety of health and hospital issues. His last leaflet before the election was all about health, so he realises how important it is.
Here are just some of the issues he faces:
- Hemel people don't want Watford General. David must now be aware, from the doorstep and from reports of our public meeting, that people in Hemel don't want Watford General to be rebuilt in a hugely disruptive and unaffordable 7-year project. Will he follow the cross-party tradition of Hemel MPs opposing the Watford rebuild? His majority is under 5000, making it a marginal. He will surely have to take into account the views of his constituents. But in Watford, David's colleague Matt Turmaine has promised people that Watford General will be rebuilt. How will Labour square this circle?
- Financial woes at the West Herts Trust. The West Herts Trust is facing an £18.5m deficit this year - the poorest financial performance in the Herts and West Essex region. Cuts of £27m are being applied - how will David be monitoring the impact of the cuts on patient services? There may be no money for David's idea of a Community Hospital for Hemel.
- Mount Vernon crisis. Vital new premises for the crumbling Mount Vernon Cancer Centre are seemingly being held up by disgraceful NHS dithering. The problem is that a crucial move for MVCC cannot happen until the Watford General rebuild is finished - meaning a ten-year wait for a new MVCC. The obvious solution - a clear joint site for a new West Herts Hospital and a new MVCC - is apparently ruled out by West Herts' obsession with building at Watford. This is a story that reflects very badly on the NHS.
- Trust Board does not reflect Dacorum views. Key decisions on hospitals for the 155000 people of Dacorum are made by the unelected Board of the West Herts Trust, which has NOT ONE independent member from the Borough. David has expressed his concern in the past and should now demand urgent action to correct a situation which is totally unacceptable. How was this ever allowed to happen?
- GP and dental access problems. GP access is hard for everybody now, but some Hemel practices are worse than others. How can the worst learn from the best? Dental deserts are rife all over the country - how can the NHS tackle that problem in Hemel and other parts of West Herts?
HEALTH ACTION GROUP SEND TOUGH QUESTIONS TO WEST HERTS TRUST
Dacorum Health Action Group (DHAG) has demanded answers from West Herts Hospitals Trust to a series of tough questions from the general public about the way the Trust is running our services.
Issues raised in the questions, submitted at last week's pre-election public meeting organised by DHAG, included:
- Why is the Trust refusing to own up to the likely cost of the Watford General rebuild?
- How will the deficit-ridden Trust pay for the Watford General rebuild?
- How will the impact on patients and staff of the Trust's £27m annual cuts be monitored?
- How will the Trust keep services running at Watford General during the disruptive seven-year rebuild?
The questions are at the link below:
Questions West Herts for Candidates meeting 24.6.24
WATFORD GENERAL PLANS GET THUMBS DOWN AT HEMEL ELECTION MEETING
A pre-election meeting of more than 150 people in Hemel Hempstead earlier this week saw overwhelming rejection of the plans to rebuild Watford General Hospital.
Many people called on the NHS to look at options for a clear new site with better access than the cramped and crumbling Vicarage Road facility.
Four general election candidates taking part in the meeting, organised by Dacorum Health Action Group at Hemel Methodist Church, also expressed concern about the £1.4bn, 7-year Watford project.
The Labour Party did not provide a representative.
There was widespread support from candidates and the audience for much better hospital services in Hemel Hempstead.
Public feedback after the meeting showed the depth of feeling about our hospitals and the undemocratic way the West Herts Hospitals Trust decides on investment.
Photo credit: Gary Norman
NEW GOVERNMENT TO GAMBLE YOUR MONEY ON WASTEFUL WATFORD GENERAL
The new government is now certain to risk at least £1.4bn on rebuilding at Watford General.
Labour yesterday committed itself to the towering infirmary project at Watford General. The Tories have said they would do the same.
BUT A DEVASTATING AND DETAILED NEW ANALYSIS BY DACORUM HEALTH ACTION GROUP AND THE NEW HOSPITAL CAMPAIGN SHOWS THAT THIS WILL BE A BIG FINANCIAL GAMBLE - AS WELL AS A BAD DEAL FOR PATIENTS ACROSS WEST HERTS
The report, 'Unaffordable and Unfair - the Wasteful Watford Hospital Project' reveals that the plans for Watford General:
• Will cause years of disruption that will affect patients and staff
• Are unaffordable and unfair
• Will not meet the needs of people across West Herts
• Are likely to place the West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals Trust in a very difficult financial position, which would have worrying repercussions for patient care.
The link to the report is below:
BED CUTS ON WAY IN WATFORD REBUILD?
Recent changes to the plans for Watford General's new facility will likely mean a slightly lower set of tower blocks.
Instead of the threatened 16 storey, 260 foot monster, a video shows one that features three towers of 12 or maybe 13 storeys each - the hospital equivalent of 18 or 19 residential floors.
That's good news - the New Hospital Campaign has been attacking the plans for the tallest NHS building outside central London, so we won't complain if it's scaled down a bit.
BUT THERE IS A BIG CATCH
Reducing the scale of the buildings may mean lopping several wards off each tower - with the loss of a fair number of beds.
That could well mean that the new Watford Hospital facility will have too few beds for our future needs.
The original plans for the new Watford building would have seen enough room for the 960-plus beds needed for the next few decades in West Hertfordshire.
But a lower building at Watford would not be able to accommodate the beds we should have. It would probably have fewer beds than we have now.
The problem, of course, is the tiny site left for redevelopment at Watford - it's just not big enough.
New thinking is needed about a new site - but don't expect it from our local NHS bosses
VERDICT ON FUTURE OF MOUNT VERNON SEEMS TO BE 'ANYWHERE BUT WATFORD GENERAL'
People commenting on the social media network Nextdoor have given a big thumbs down to the idea of moving the Mount Vernon Cancer Centre (MVCC) to Watford General.
It's unscientific, but the outcome from over 70 comments to a post asking for opinions on Mount Vernon (with over 10,000 views) was that:
- The proposed move of MVCC to Watford General was not supported by a single commenter
- Many people want to keep MVCC where it is, with greenery near at hand
- Few people accept the argument that it would be safer and better to move MVCC next to an acute hospital where patients who need it can easily get life-saving treatment quickly
Hers is the link to the Nextdoor post and comments:
https://nextdoor.co.uk/p/cdFXHTR75nY8?utm_source=share&extras=MTc1OTIyMDU3MzExNjE%3D&utm_campaign=1715790018169
As it happens, there is a fairly strong case for moving cancer treatment centres close to acute hospitals with all the backup, ICUs etc.
But what people seem to be saying is that they want treatment to be in a place where they can enjoy some light and space while going through their often difficult times. Of course Watford General will have even less light and space after the towering infirmary has been built.
ONE OBVIOUS OPTION IS TO BUILD A NEW MVCC TOGETHER WITH A DECENT, WELL-PROPORTIONED, HUMAN-SCALE NEW WEST HERTS ACUTE HOSPITAL ON A NEW SITE AWAY FROM CRAMPED VICARAGE ROAD.
BUT THE NHS WON'T LISTEN TO THAT AND WON'T EVEN TRY TO LOOK FOR SUCH A SITE