CAMPAIGN HITS PARLIAMENT WITH ATTACK ON BOTCHED NEW HOSPITAL PROGRAMME
The New Hospital Campaign has sent Parliament a scathing attack on the Government’s hospital-building efforts, especially the plans for Watford General.
The Campaign has submitted to the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee a detailed report setting out the many failings of the Government’s New Hospital Programme. The Programme aims to build 40 new (or refurbished) hospitals in England by 2030. The Campaign’s report says that:
- The reasons for the choice of sites for new hospitals, including Watford, have never been explained. There was no proper evidence to say why one hospital is to be given a new building while others are to be left as they are;
- Plans for ‘Hospital 2.0’, a standard system of building, using factory-made components to cut costs and construction time, have been very slow to emerge. The West Herts Trust have been allowed to waste years on their absurd 260-foot high tower-block hospital, which will never fit Hospital 2.0;
- The Trust will struggle to find any company to build their big and expensive hospital because there is not enough capacity in the construction industry. The narrow, sloping site right up against a working hospital makes Watford an unattractive proposition for contractors.
The Committee is likely to publish a very negative report on the Government’s programme, and the NHC criticism will certainly play into that.