Doubts grow over funding for Hospital closure plan

  • Where will the money come from for the 'neighbourhood health centre' (NHC) to replace Hemel Hospital?
  • The Market Square 'health centre' Hub would cost £135m, according to West Herts Trust Board papers 
  • But last week the Government confirmed that the first 50 NHCs would cost an average of just - £4m for refurbishments
  • There are plans to eventually house some NHCs in new buildings - but the MAXIMUM cost would be a reported £40m
  • So the Market Square Hub would cost three times more than any other in the country
  • Money raised from the sale of the Hospital site is going to be modest, a Trust official admitted last year
  • This plan doesn't sound good value for money - the Hub appears basically a 'rationalisation' of existing services
  • Here is the link to the Government announcement:
  • https://www.gov.uk/government/news/communities-to-benefit-from-health-centres-on-their-doorstep

 

by philip

'Misinformation' - a challenge to the NHS and Dacorum Council

  • The various groups of campaigners against the closure of Hemel Hospital have been accused of spreading misinformation about the plan
  • The supporters of the closure say that campaigners indulge in speculation about the replacement Neighbourhood Health Centre in Market Square
  • Closure supporters rarely identify specific inaccuracies in what campaigners say
  • But it is disturbing that this debate has reached this point
  • One of the reasons is that the authorities have provided very little hard information about the project
  • A good example is the 2025 'public version' of the 'Economic Case' for the project - which contained not one Pound sign
  • The complete Strategic Outline Case (SOC) has not been made public
  • This retreat from transparency is very disappointing, because previously, the local NHS Trust has made a very detailed public case for its plans
  • For example, when the Trust Board considered acute redevelopment in 2020, the full case for building on Watford General was made public and responses were invited
  • A full draft Strategic Outline Case including case numbers had been made public the year before
  • The 2020 public document had full information including -
  1. costs of various options, including their impact on the finances of the Trust
  2. detailed analysis of the longlist of options,
  3. detailed technical site feasibility studies
  4. detailed reports of the work of stakeholder panels including the public
  5. detailed descriptions of potential risks
  • The fact that the SOC for the Hemel Hospital closure/Neighbourhood Health Centre scheme has NOT been made public has meant that people have not been given enough information
  • Here is the challenge to the promoters of the Neighbourhood Health Centre scheme
  • WHY NOT PUBLISH THE STRATEGIC OUTLINE CASE ?
  • What do you have to lose?
  • Below are the 2020 329-page Board papers from the 2020 redevelopment debate 

WHHT and HVCCG Board Meetings 01 Oct 2020_Updated on 2020-09-29

 

 

by philip

What will happen to Hemel's final hospital beds?

  • Will Hemel keep its rehabilitation beds?
  • Hemel Hospital currently has just one inpatient ward left - the 20-bed St Peter's Ward rehabilitation unit
  • It is for people who are ready to leave hospital care. Patients have therapy 'to help them become as independent as possible.' 
  • It can also be used as 'part of a rapid care response to avoid people being admitted to hospital.'
  • The NHS aims to demolish Hemel Hospital and replace it with a 'neighbourhood health centre' in Market Square
  • The Market Square site appears to be too small to accommodate any beds
  • A review of the beds was due to report in February
  • There has been no public announcement of the review's outcome.
  • DHAG has asked the West Herts Trust for information on the fate of the 20 beds

by philip

Trust confusion over Hub services squeeze

  • There's confusion over what services will go into the 'neighbourhood health centre' Hub in Market Square
  • The only official building plan ever published, in 2023, just showed accommodation for community health services, imaging (MRI etc), West Herts Trust (Outpatients, Anticipatory care and Urgent Treatment Centre), Primary care including out of hours GP, an admin floor, reception and food and drink outlets
  • But a recent Trust statement quoted in the Hemel Gazette claims there will be more squeezed onto the small site
  • The Trust says now the Hub will have 'hospital services, GP services, mental health care, social care, wellbeing support, and community health services.'
  • Where will social care, wellbeing support and mental health care go?
  • What room will be left for the remnants of our Hospital services?

by philip

Another delay for Hospital closure plan

  • Councillors and others backing the closure of Hemel Hospital face more disappointment this week 
  • The plan to replace the Hospital with a 'neighbourhood health centre' on Market Square is already four months behind schedule 
  • Regional NHS bosses must approve the plan to cram what's left of the Hospital onto just three floors
  • The downgrade SHOULD have been on the agenda for a key meeting in November 2025 
  • But there was no progress then
  • The bosses are meeting again this Friday, but once again it's not on the agenda
  • That means further delay for the £135m closure plan
  • The reasons for the continued hold-up are not known, but finance may be one problem
  • The cost of the Hemel plan is at least THREE TIMES MORE than for any other 'neighbourhood health centre' planned in England
  • Perhaps regional bosses have realised there are better things to spend their (our) scarce money on than just moving services across Marlowes?

by philip

Hemel Hospital - reduced to less than three floors

  • Services moved from the seven-hectare (18-acre) Hemel General Hospital site would be crammed onto less than three floors in the planned 'neighbourhood health centre' Hub in Market Square
  • We have seen only one floor plan for the 'health centre' - from 2023
  • It shows hospital services would have to share 8000 square metres with community health services, admin (service support), a building plant floor, shops  - and eateries
  • The plan talks of 'WHTH' and 'ICB' on Ground floor and levels 1 and 2. 
  • These would be the remnants of our 200-year-old hospital services.
  • The ground floor would see the town's Urgent Treatment Centre rubbing shoulders with 'Retail/F&B' - meaning shops, food and beverage outlets
  • The Government plans to have neighbourhood health centres funded through 'a mix of public-private partnership and public capital'.
  • Below is the floor plan for the 'neighbourhood health centre'.

 

by philip

Hemel's incredible shrinking Hospital

  • Hemel stands to lose a big public asset if our seven-hectare Hospital is demolished
  • The substitute would be a Market Square 'neighbourhood health centre' Hub on just half a hectare
  • The buildings currently in use at our Hospital have nearly 20,000 square metres of floor space
  • The 'health centre' Hub downgrade will have just 8000 square metres 
  • And where would patients park, especially those who find it hard to walk?
  • Some Hemel Hospital buildings are newish and in better condition than many at Watford General
  • Yet the Council and West Herts Trust bosses claim the 'health centre' will be better able to meet the hospital needs of a town with thousands of new homes and an ageing population
  • There are various plans to provide a convenient new or refurbished Hospital building on the present site - up to 12,000 square metres.
  • These plans would also allow for housing on part of the site - Government targets have to be met
  • Surely developing the current Hospital site would be a much better choice for the future ?

by philip

NHS expert verdict - existing buildings are good for health centres

  • Top NHS experts say new neighbourhood health centres (NHCs)  should use existing buildings where possible
  • That could be bad news for those who support the Market Square Hub
  • NHS Property Services (NHSPS) recently called for 'Optimising the existing estate' for the centres because 'in many instances refurbishments and extensions are cheaper and quicker [than new builds]'
  • A major December 2025 NHSPS report also said 'The existing estate offers many opportunities to develop NHCs now'
  • The controversial plan for a new £135m Hub NHC in the Market Square is well out of line with this expert opinion
  • The Market Square Hub would also be hugely more expensive than other NHCs
  • The maximum projected cost of an NHC is likely to be somewhere between £20m and £40m
  • It is not known why the Hemel NHC should cost the taxpayer at least THREE TIMES AS MUCH as any other NHC
  • This failure to control Market Square costs may help to explain why the scheme has not yet been given the go-ahead by the regional NHS
  • These are links to the NHSPS document:

https://www.property.nhs.uk/media/px4cufab/nhsps-making-nhcs-a-reality.pdf

nhsps-making-nhcs-a-reality (1)

by philip

How many flats for the Water Gardens car parks?

  • We need proper public consultation now on the future of Hemel's Water Gardens car parks
  • It's nearly THREE YEARS since the car parks - key to the setting of the lovely listed Water Gardens - were first advertised to 'investors' as 'opportunity sites' for building on
  • The Council set out a 'Town Centre Vision' in July 2023. It wants it to be 'a leisure and cultural hub'
  • The car parks would 'need to respond to the changing context through the intensification of developments and activities.' 
  •  A 'joint team' from Housebuilders Hill Group and the Council are now working on affordable housing plans 
  • They are also seeking hundreds of car spaces for the Market Square 'neighbourhood health centre'
  • The planned number of flats or houses has not been made public - that should be put right NOW
  • This is the link to the Town Centre Vision:

https://thinkhemel.com/investors/the-opportunity-sites/

 

 

by philip

NHS bosses fail in bid for fast-track closure of Hemel Hospital

  • Inspectors throw out NHS bid to make it easier to close our Hospital
  • NHS bosses wanted the right to close local health facilities without going through local planning 
  • NHS Property Services claimed  'the form of any health provision [is] a decision for local health commissioners and should not be constrained by planning policy.' 
  • These 'local health commissioners' are unelected civil servants and Board members
  • The NHS wanted the Dacorum Local Plan to say our health premises could be closed 'Where healthcare facilities are formally declared surplus to the operational requirements of the NHS or identified as surplus as part of a published estates strategy or transformation plan,'
  • This would have made it a lot easier to close Hemel Hospital without consulting us
  • Dacorum Health Action Group Chair Philip Aylett raised the issue with Government inspectors at yesterday's public session on the Local Plan
  • The Inspectors made it clear that this fast-track Hospital closure bid would not be allowed
  • The NHS and Council will have to go through proper planning to make the case for their plans to close Hemel Hospital and replace it with a 'neighbourhood health centre' on Market Square

by philip