Claim for Market Square Hub is just incredible!
- NHS claim that the Market Square Hub is the right option makes NO SENSE
- This table of assessments of site options claims a five-storey £30m building on a busy street is more 'deliverable' than extensions to a modern building in its own grounds
- Claims made during meetings this week - with NO EVIDENCE to back them up - try to shore up bid to close Hemel Hospital and replace it with the Hub
- DHAG will be demanding the evidence
THE OPTIONS FOR FUTURE OF OUR LOCAL HOSPITAL SERVICES -TAKE THE SURVEY
- Options for future of Dacorum's local hospital services have been sent to some County Councillors
- This survey is your chance to have your say - Hub or Hospital?
- https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MXBYBGF
Next week's campus/hub meetings - the details
- Online meeting on future hospital facilities for Dacorum. Monday 15 September at 6.30 pm:
To join the event please use the following link on Monday 15 September: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/
- Public meeting Wednesday 17 September, 630 pm, South Hill Centre, Hemel. Contact Heather Aylward to register - heather.aylward@nhs.net.
Will Health Hub improve access? Perhaps not ...
- Claims that Hemel Health Hub will improve access to hospital services don't really add up
- Hemel Hospital has 430 car spaces
- Closing the Hospital and moving services to the Market Square would put major pressure on th 600-space Water Gardens car park
- Most cars for the Hub patients could end up on the TOP DECK of the Water Gardens - IF there was enough room
- Steep exposed steps could make the walk to the Hub risky - unless a costly lift is built
- AND It could easily take longer to walk from the spread-out Water Gardens car park to a new Market Square building than it takes to get from Asda to X-Ray and blood clinic.
Market Square rated badly as site for our hospital
- Hemel's Market Square came JOINT BOTTOM the last time NHS experts rated possible sites for developing Dacorum's hospital services
- In 2018, the Market Square option got just 8 out of 16 on a scoreboard of things like:
- OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY,
- FUNCTIONAL SUITABILITY AND
- WIDER ECONOMIC BENEFIIT
- NHS technical experts gave top scores ranging from 11 to 13 out of 16 to various options on the CURRENT HEMEL HOSPITAL SITE
- So - WHY are the Council and the NHS so keen to close our Hospital ?
- WHY THE RUSH TO THE MARKET SQUARE, WHICH FAILED THE TESTS LAST TIME?
- A table summarising selected ratings from the 2018 draft Strategic Outline Case reviewed by the Herts Valleys CCG Board is here:
- Scores 2018
- See the whole document in the previous post:
- https://dhag.org.uk/news-updates/market-square-was-rejected-as-hospital-site-by-nhs/
Car park cock-up hits Market Square Hub plans
- There's embarrassment for Dacorum Council and the NHS as their favoured Market Square Hub scheme runs into car park trouble
- The Hub would feature an Urgent Treatment Centre, open to at least 10 pm daily.
- David Taylor MP is rightly insisting on rehabilitation and step-down beds being provided at the new facility
- BUT - The main car parking facility would be at the Water Gardens
- Unfortunately that car park closes at 6 pm, which prevents the sort of noisy car and bike racing that used to plague the facility and disturb local residents
- So the NHS and the Council have a tough choice if they continue with their unpopular and expensive plan to move services a few hundred metres across Marlowes.
- Perhaps they will have to either:
- Allow the boy racers to start up again by opening the car park in the evening - OR
- Close the Hub at 6pm
FOUR options for future of Dacorum hospital services
- The Market Square Campus being pushed by the NHS and Dacorum Council is only ONE out of FOUR possible options for the future of Dacorum's hospital services, it has emerged.
- The authorities have heavily promoted the Campus idea - without admitting it was NOT the only way forward. Now they are having to come clean with the public about the choices.
- The three other options will ALL focus on the existing Hemel Hospital site, we understand
- The Market Square idea ranked well below other options when the NHS last assessed the pros and cons of alternatives for our future in 2018. It failed on key measures like operational efficiency and wider economic benefit
- In September there will be meetings at which the public can have their say on this.post
- This post explains where the Market Square's low ranking comes from:
- https://dhag.org.uk/news-updates/market-square-was-rejected-as-hospital-site-by-nhs/
Blow to case for moving our hospital services to Market Square
- Controversial plan for 390 Leighton Buzzard Road homes (see pic) approved and will almost certainly now go ahead
- This decision has met a lot of opposition and will affect our environment. But it does mean Dacorum Council could meet Government housing targets WITHOUT having to close the whole of the current Hemel Hospital site and replace it with flats
- It will make it easier for the NHS to use part of the existing site for the promised Hemel Community Hospital
- This weakens the case of those who are pushing to move NHS services to the Market Square
- The NHS and Dacorum Council MUST now publish ALL the options for our Community Hospital.
Next steps towards Hemel's Community Hospital - a wide range of options
- Treasury rules explain the next stage on the journey to Hemel Community Hospital. This autumn will be crucial.
- A Strategic Outline Case (SOC) document, to be submitted soon, MUST:
- set out 'investment or spending objectives' - what the Community Hospital should aim to do
- describe 'a wide range of realistic options to be appraised (the long-list), in terms of how well they meet the spending objectives and critical success factors for
the scheme; and then a reduced number of possible options (the short-list) to be examined in further detail.' - assess how well each option meets the 'critical success factors - the attributes essential for successful delivery of the project'
- The NHS and Dacorum Council have to agree on this SOC this autumn. It MUST include a range of options.
- They have NOT made it clear to the public that the Market Square 'Campus' option is only one among several possible options to achieve the objectives
- This must change very quickly
Possible options for Dacorum's hospital services?
- The NHS must put forward to the Government soon a range of options for future hospital services in Dacorum
- One option is the move of services from the current Hemel Hospital site to the Hemel Market Square, now described by the NHS as a community hospital
- BUT there must be more options, otherwise the Government will not pay for it
- These options should be made public soon
- None of them would see the restoration of Hemel as an acute hospital, but they would establish a range of much-needed planned local hospital services
- One option could be the refurbishment of the Verulam Building on the current Hospital site, given planning approval in 2022. See the illustration in this post
- Other options were developed by the NHS in 2018. These would involve quite extensive works on the current site, or leaving it as it is. They would not see the return of A&E, and could be quite expensive. The budget may not stretch. Click below for the 2018 shortlist of options for Hemel Hospital development:
- 2018 options