News Updates

David Taylor MP on health for Dacorum - Action Group responds

• • David Taylor, MP for Hemel Hempstead, has written to a number of constituents who have asked him about health and hospital issues
  • Mr Taylor calls for a community hospital for Hemel Hempstead, which would be a good result for the town and the Borough of Dacorum. That is something that DHAG would firmly support.
  • However the letter also makes a number of statements which are open to challenge, including:
  • Mr Taylor says the Hemel Health Campus for the Market Square 'is the best outcome for the residents of Hemel Hempstead. It is the only offer available'. This is premature. The case for closing Hemel Hempstead Hospital and replacing it with a Health Campus must be officially tested before any decision is made. There must be engagement with the public before the necessary investment is approved.  Those are the Treasury rules.
  • Mr Taylor claims 'Hemel Hempstead Hospital is not fit for 21st century healthcare. The buildings are in disrepair'. This is exaggerated. The Verulam Building is relatively new - about 30 years old - and contains purpose-built hospital accommodation, which is badly underused. There may well be a case for the Market Square campus but it is very important for the public to hear the arguments. It is vital that our hospital services are not limited by the size of the plot on which they are provided.
  • Mr Taylor says 'Delaying or starting over with this project (the plan to rebuild Watford General) could push healthcare improvements for Hemel Hempstead back by at least 10 years'. Where is the evidence for this statement? The rebuild of Watford General is completely separate from the Hemel project. The start of any Watford rebuild is delayed until 2032 at least and its costs are out of control. The New Hospital Campaign would like to see a proper exploration of alternatives to the Watford project which would almost certainly be cheaper and may be finished quicker.
  • Please click on the line below to see Mr Taylor's letter:
  • D Taylor letter 23 April

by philip

Enough parking at a Hemel Health Campus?

• Many doubt there would be enough parking spaces for the proposed Hemel Health Campus in Market Square, but could the sceptics be wrong?
• There are 400+ parking spaces at the current Hemel Hospital, and they're fairly well-used - not too many spare spaces
• So could a replacement Health Campus on Market Square have enough spaces for everyone?
• Maybe they could fit - but how could it be done?
• I understand from a Council source you COULD put another deck on the Water Gardens car park
• And the cramped Hillfield Road NCP car park across from the Market Square often has spaces
• BUT it would cost serious money to provide extra spaces. NCP would play hardball over reduced prices - and adding a whole extra deck to Water Gardens would be pricey and disruptive
• And money is in very short supply - just ask Rachel Reeves

by philip

Hemel Health Campus - key documents

• With the future of hospital services in Dacorum under discussion and a survey of public opinion being conducted now, here are two key documents about the proposed Hemel Health Campus in Market Square - a project initiation document and a feasibility study

Hemel Health Campus PID v1.5a Committee Submitted

Hemel Health Campus Feasibility v0.14

by philip

Watford General - England's worst acute hospital for privacy and dignity

• Watford General is rated England's worst acute hospital for privacy, dignity and wellbeing, according to a closely-watched NHS national survey carried out in 2024
• Watford also came bottom on this measure in the previous year's PLACE survey - and the situation has got worse
• Watford gets just 65%  for privacy, dignity and wellbeing in  2024 as other local hospitals do much better - Lister in Stevenage gets 90% rating, Luton and Dunstable 78%
• PLACE assessments are an annual appraisal of the non-clinical aspects of NHS and independent/private healthcare settings, undertaken by teams made up of staff and members of the public (known as patient assessors). The team must include a minimum of 2 patient assessors, making up at least 50 per cent of the group.
• Food on the wards at Watford General got a score of 80%, with St Albans City Hospital getting just 76%. Luton and Dunstable ward food rated about the same as Watford, with 81%, with Lister again achieving a high score of 93%.
• The link to the NHS report on the PLACE survey is here.

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/patient-led-assessments-of-the-care-environment-place/england---2024#

by philip

Watford General gets low scores from inpatients - Emergency and urgent care are average

• Watford General Hospital is rated below others in England for inpatient feedback, with a 7.7 out of 10 overall score.  Inpatient areas where it got below average scores in an NHS 2023 patient survey were -- Doctors, Care and treatment, Nurses and Leaving hospital, which received a rating of just 6.5 out of 10
• The Hospital rated above average on one measure - 'Operations and procedures' for inpatients.
• Scores for the Watford Emergency Department were about average, although tests were not up to the English average.
• Urgent Treatment Centres at Hemel and Watford were given 7.8 out of 10, which is 'similar to other providers across the country' according to the West Herts Trust which runs both hospitals. However, waiting times for the UTCs got a very low score of just 4.4 out of 10 
• The full scores are on page 8 of the Patient_experience_strategy_Nov24V1D8 document just published.

by philip

Six month delay for Hemel Health Campus plan

• Dacorum Council update on the proposed Market Square Hemel Health Campus or Hub reveals that a key document, due to be ready by May 2025, won't be submitted until the end of the year
• The Strategic Outline Case is vital to progress but is held up in NHS bureaucracy
• There are no details yet of services to be provided in the Hub after the planned closure of Hemel Hospital
• Dacorum Health Action Group Chair Philip Aylett says: 'The NHS needs to put up or shut up about the closure of Hemel Hospital and the plan to replace it with a Campus or Hub. After 15 months of speculation, we are none the wiser about the future of hospital services in Dacorum.
• 'Recent revelations about the recent severe rundown of major services at Hemel Hospital make it vital that the NHS sets out its plans for the future urgently. At the present rate of service cuts for our local hospital, there will be nothing left to transfer to the Hub if and when it is finished.'
• This is the Health Campus team Dacorum release

by philip

Hemel Hospital downgrade gathers pace as more services are cut

• Cardiology, stroke care, clinical oncology, haematology and urology services have all been removed from Hemel Hempstead Hospital in just over three years as the NHS continues to run the site down
• There are just 17 services now offered at Hemel Hempstead. As recently as September 2021 there were 23 available locally
• This is just the latest instalment in the long-term NHS asset-stripping that has seen resources switched from Dacorum to favoured but crowded sites in Watford and St Albans
• Hemel's A&E was shuttered about 15 years ago - and the Gossoms End community hospital in Berkhamsted closed a few years later
• More recently the West Herts Trust moved the valued fracture clinic from Hemel under the cover of Covid
• The further downgrading of Hemel Hospital raises questions about the plans for a Health Hub or Campus in the Market Square - which would house facilities moved there from the current site
• Will anything be left of Hemel's hospital services if and when the Hub opens? 
• A paper setting out the narrowing of the range of services locally available is here:Services-at-Hemel-Hempstead-Hospital

by philip

County Council elections - a chance to make your voice heard on Hemel and Watford hospitals

• The Herts County Council elections on 1 May are a chance to make your voice heard on Hemel and Watford Hospitals
• Why? Because the NHS is run in a way that is completely undemocratic
• The key decisions on our health services are made in secret by unelected bureaucrats and people appointed by the Government. These have often been bad decisions in West Herts
• The only impact voters can have on what happens to our hospitals is via the County Council, which has a Health Scrutiny Committee
• These Committees have strong powers. The  Government says they 'play a vital role as the body responsible for scrutinising health services for their local area. They retain legal duties to review and scrutinise matters relating to the planning, provision and operation of the health service in the area.'
• But the Herts Committee has failed to use these powers effectively. It has made no impact on the NHS trusts and their unpopular plans for a rebuild of Watford General - and the vague proposal for a 'Hub' in Hemel to replace Hemel Hospital
• We need elected people to hold the Trust bureaucrats and placemen to account for their decisions
• If and when candidates and canvassers call round and ask for your vote, please ask them:

- Will you urge the County Council Health Scrutiny Committee to demand a hospital in Hemel Hempstead that will provide enough high-quality hospital services to meet the needs of Dacorum's ageing and growing population for at least 30 years?

– Will you urge the Health Scrutiny Committee to demand that the NHS explore accessible new sites as alternatives to the delayed rebuild of Watford General?

by philip

Trust hides information on waiting times in transparency breach

• Vital information about the performance of Watford, St Albans and Hemel Hospitals has been hidden from the public
• In defiance of transparency guidelines laid down by the information watchdog, the ICO, the West Herts NHS Trust recently removed previous years' Board minutes from its website. The oldest available minutes are from February 2024.
• These national transparency rules state that trusts must publish minutes going back at least three years. This allows the public to compare performance as reported to the Board, including A&E and surgery waits.
• In a further move which shows its determination to prevent public access to this important information, the Trust has, it seems, also ensured that it is impossible to find the previous years' minutes through internet search. Just try Googling 'board minutes West Herts 2022'.

by philip