DACORUM COUNCIL MUST BE MORE AMBITIOUS WITH HEALTH PLANS
Dacorum Council should press the NHS much harder for improvements to health and hospital services in the Borough, according to Dacorum Health Action Group (DHAG).
Current plans for a Health Campus in the middle of Hemel Hempstead would not give the town or the Borough what they need.
DHAG also pointed to the many advantages of the existing Hemel Hempstead Hospital site, which has some buildings in reasonable condition and offers space for 'clean' beds during a pandemic. The underlying question was - Why Abandon Hemel Hospital?
DHAG Chair Philip Aylett told a 30 November meeting of the Council's Health in Dacorum Committee that plans to replace Hemel Hospital with a Health Campus "appear to fall short of what is required." He continued that the proposed building - on the Market Square on the Marlowes - only looked big enough to accommodate " the limited services planned for Hemel by the West Herts Hospitals Trust."
Dr Aylett said the Trust plan for urgent care at Hemel - projecting a tiny 6% rise in cases over 17 years - "underestimates the likely future demands of Dacorum's ageing and growing population". By contrast, Watford General would see a huge 30% rise in A and E cases and big increases in planned appointments. Dr Aylett said this "continuation of the Trust’s long-standing policy of levelling down means many more miserable, congested journeys to Watford General."
Dr Aylett urged the Council to negotiate with the NHS "to try to secure, for Hemel Hempstead, substantial increases in the range and volume of services beyond those planned by the Trust."
Dr Aylett's full statement to the Health in Dacorum Committee is here:
Health in Dacorum speaking note Final
CASH CRISIS FOR TRUST AS TREATING PATIENTS IN CORRIDORS PROVES EXPENSIVE
West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals Trust is facing a potential £33 million deficit this year as costs run out of control and the Government refuses to pay for high inflation. The best scenario for 2023-24 is a deficit of £11 million.
The Trust may have to borrow this autumn just to keep afloat - just as it prepares to borrow another billion to build the Watford General triple towers.
The Trust Board will hear at a meeting tomorrow (7 September) that:
- A and E pressures including opening 'surge beds' and 'caring for patients in Emergency Department corridors' have bust the budget by £1.5 m
- The drugs and clinical supplies budget has been overspent by £2.7m
- The budget for outsourcing - which is supposed to save money - is overspent by £500,000
- The Trust is burning through its cash reserves rapidly - it had £35 m 'in the bank' in March, £16.9m in May and just £11m in July. Borrowing could be needed by early next year
- Tight spending controls are being imposed to bring costs down
THE GOVERNMENT'S FAILURE TO FUND INFLATION AND THE IMPACT OF THE STRIKES HAVE MADE IT DIFFICULT FOR THE TRUST.
OTHER TRUSTS ARE PROBABLY SUFFERING TOO.
BUT QUESTIONS MUST BE ASKED ABOUT WHY THE WEST HERTS TRUST MANAGEMENT HAS ALLOWED THIS TO HAPPEN QUITE SO QUICKLY - AND WHY, FOR INSTANCE, HIGH SPENDING HAS NOT BROUGHT BETTER RESULTS IN A AND E, WHERE WEST HERTS LAGS THE REST OF THE NHS ON SOME MEASURES
WATFORD GENERAL 'SINKHOLE' HAS ITS FIRST BIRTHDAY - BUT NO-ONE'S CELEBRATING
The collapsed services duct unpopularly known as the Watford General sinkhole has just passed its first birthday. The Trust have been struggling to sort out the mess in the road by the main hospital entrance for a year now, and the digger is still digging.
To be fair it looks as if they are nearing the end of the fiasco and the road may be open before too long. That would be a big relief to patients and staff.
But the saga has shown up the frailty of the vital services tunnels, with cables and pipes, under the hospital. The Trust took months to work out what had happened and what repairs were needed. They still don't know what lies beneath the old buildings and how safe it would be be to build on top. All sorts of things, including asbestos and other pollutants, may be down there.
That matters because it looks likely that the Trust will have to use the site of the existing buildings in the future, for whatever new hospital emerges from the mess that is the acute redevelopment project.
This is just a terrible place to put a new hospital.