NHS and Council keep public in dark about Hospital closure plan
- Key Council committee to push forward on Monday with Hemel Hospital closure plan
- Crucial information hidden from public as plans for substitute Market Square Hub to be approved by Dacorum Health and Wellbeing Committee
- Council claim secrecy about future of our health services is in 'public interest'
- This is just some of the vital information the NHS and Council are keeping from us:
- Costs of Market Square Hub v costs of developing current site
- Independent report on local services Hospital that rated the Market Square the WORST site
- Where 440 more cars will park if the Hub is built on the Market Square
- These are the papers for the 3 November meeting (see page 4):
- https://democracy.dacorum.gov.uk/documents/g4190/Public%20reports%20pack%2003rd-Nov-2025%2019.30%20Health%20and%20Wellbeing%20Committee.pdf?T=10
Expert review debunks myth that all Hemel Hospital is unfit
- Supporters of the Market Square Health Hub say that Hemel Hospital is old and unfit
- A recent expert report shows this sweeping statement - intended to support the PR campaign for the Hub - is quite wrong and misleading
- The independent Six Facet Survey carried out in the winter of 2023-24 said the structure of the late-20th century Verulam Building at Hemel Hospital is 'Sound, operationally safe and exhibits only minor deterioration'.
- That included foundations, walls, floors and roofs
- There were quite a number of things that needed doing, including replacing wooden windows, but Verulam is basically a sound building, which could easily be refurbed and extended.
- It would make a great planned care hospital, with room around to expand to meet our growing needs over time
- The redacted detailed survey is here - showing that Verulam is in better structural condition than either of the two main buildings at Watford General, Princess Michael of Kent and the Maternity Block - which will be used until the late 2030s
- 2024 Six Facet half redacted
Cemetery area more suitable than Market Square for hospital site
- The last independent rating of possible hospital sites in Dacorum ranked the Market Square site NINTH
- In a detailed expert analysis in 2018, the tiny site - now being heavily promoted by Dacorum Council for a Health Hub - was BEATEN BY FOUR OPTIONS on the current Hemel Hospital site and four other possible sites, including ones:
- In the Maylands Avenue industrial area of Hemel
- Next to Hemel's Woodwells Cemetery
- Using the site of the former Dacorum Borough Council offices in the Marlowes
- The experts said that the Market Square rated a score of just 8 out of 16 on efficiency, economic benefit and other scores.
- The Market Square was even soundly beaten by the cemetery area option, which got 11 out of 16
Mystery of missing Market Square evidence deepens
- Two crucial expert reports - showing that the Hemel Market Square is not a suitable site for developing a hospital - have gone missing from BOTH the NHS and Dacorum Council
- In 2018, independent experts rated a large number of possible sites for a local hospital for Dacorum. The Market Square was placed 8th out of 8 in that process
- In a stunning U-turn, the NHS and Council have been pushing for a Hub to be built on the Market Square to replace the current Hemel Hospital - claiming it is their 'preferred way forward'
- The NHS have already said that 'Following reasonable searches, we can confirm that [it] does not hold' the 2018 reports
- Now Dacorum Borough Council says that it does not have the 2018 reports either.
- What could have happened to them?
Would the Hub deal be good for patients and the taxpayer?
- Supporters of Hemel's Market Square Hub talk about it as a done deal
- They claim it is the ONLY way forward for our local hospital care
- The 'engagement' on the Hub has been so biased that it seems likely that the NHS and Dacorum Council are ALREADY signed up to it
- This PR suggests that commitments have already been made, probably with private sector developers
- There is growing evidence that deals like PFI - the Private Finance Initiative - have been VERY BAD for NHS finances
- The Hub deal could be a variety of PFI, leaving the meaning . Or it could be great for the taxpayer - on
MPs and councillors discuss Hospital closure - behind closed doors
- On Friday local MPs and councillors will privately meet officials to hear more about the closure of Hemel Hospital
- There has been no announcement of the meeting, its agenda or the invitees
- Will private sector representatives from the Dacorum Investment Partnership be at the meeting, for instance?
- David Taylor MP (Hemel) and Victoria Collins MP (Harpenden and Berkhamsted) have been invited, we understand
- Neither MP turned up at public meetings about the plans to replace the Hospital with a Hub
- But at least Victoria Collins has asked DHAG to suggest issues to raise in Friday's meeting
- We hope she will ask about possible private finance and the poor rating given to the Market Square site in the past
- We also hope there will be ANSWERS that the MPs and councillors will share with those who elected them
Will private developers be involved in the Hub?
- Dacorum Health Action Group is calling for transparency on any involvement of private sector developers in the building of the Market Square Health Hub
- A Freedom of Information bid seeks information from Dacorum Council about contacts between the Council and private companies about the Square
- One possibility is that the new Dacorum Investment Partnership (DIP), which involves the Council and housebuilders The Hill Group, could invest in the project
- DIP is 'aimed at increasing the number of affordable homes and delivering major regeneration projects across the borough.' It is 'an equal investment and decision-making collaboration' between the Council and Hill.
- Companies House information reveals that Hill Investment Partnerships and the Council are 'persons with significant control' in DIP, with each having 'More than 25% but not more than 50%' of voting rights and ' More than 25% but not more than 50%' of rights to 'surplus assets'.
- In August 2024, the Council said that it was exploring 'whether other development, such as new housing, retail and café uses could be possible as well' on the Market Square
- Here is more about the Dacorum Investment Partnership:
- https://www.dacorum.gov.uk/home/all-news/2025/08/11/investment-partnership-to-deliver-affordable-new-homes-and-regeneration
Beds would disappear under plan for Hemel Hub
- There are NO BEDS in the latest plan for Hemel's Market Square Hub
- This will disappoint supporters of a community hospital in the town, including MP David Taylor
- The plan for the Hub also doesn't mention the many services currently provided at the Marlowes Health and Wellbeing Centre.
- It doesn't look as if the Hub will be big enough to include beds or these important services
- By contrast, there would be plenty of room for these services on the current Hospital site
- WHY ARE THE COUNCIL AND NHS RUSHING TO ABANDON OUR SPACIOUS HOSPITAL SITE AND SQUEEZE SERVICES ONTO THE CRAMPED MARKET SQUARE?
- The key points of the draft 'Schedule of Accommodation' for the Hub are here: Draft schedule of accommodation
Action Group demands the facts on Hemel Hospital demolition plan
- Dacorum Health Action Group (DHAG) members are calling on the NHS and Dacorum Council to come clean about their plan to demolish Hemel Hospital and move services to a Hub on the town's Market Square
- In a series of Freedom of Information bids, DHAG is demanding to know:
- 1. WHY the Market Square site was rated Hemel's WORST place to locate hospital services the last time the NHS looked at the options;
- 2. HOW the NHS now justifies giving the Market Square the TOP rating for a hospital site, and
- 3. WHAT negotiations - if any - have taken place with profit-seeking private developers about the future of the Market Square. The Council have admitted that the Hub might end up having to share the Market Square with 'new housing, retail and café uses'.
- DHAG will take the Council and the NHS to the Information Commissioner if they block public access to this key information
Do Dacorum's disappearing MPs really care about our healthcare?
- NONE of Dacorum's three MPs were apparently interested enough in the future of local hospital services to turn up at recent public meetings about them
- There were four short NHS meetings in Dacorum about the NHS plan to demolish Hemel Hospital and replace it with a Hub on the small Market Square
- David Taylor (Hemel), Victoria Collins (Harpenden and Berkhamsted) and Gagan Mohindra (South West Herts) all have constituents in the Borough, which could be about to lose its last hospital.
- Not one of those elected representatives was seen at any of the meetings
- Dacorum Health Action Group has offered to bring the MPs up to date