NHC meets with Health Secretary Sajid Javid

NHC call on Trust to seek new bids for greenfield sites after Health Secretary meeting

Health Secretary Sajid Javid is to look into the West Herts Trust decision to redevelop Watford General.  This heartening progress on the saga came after a face-to-face meeting including NHC campaigners in Mr Javid’s House of Commons office.

The Campaign today called on the Trust to look again at all the four new clear greenfield sites wrongly rejected in 2020 – and to invite new bids to make sure patients and taxpayers get the best deal.

NHC Co-ordinator Philip Aylett and building expert Bob Scott were part of a delegation led by Hemel Hempstead MP Mike Penning. Bob pointed out the dire conditions at Watford, with buildings in a bad state of repair and services not fit for purpose. But the Trust’s plans for a budget-busting 17-storey triple tower hospital on the severely sloping site won’t work either.

Philip explained that Watford General was inaccessible and unpopular, and showed Sajid that the decision to reject all clear new sites was based on flimsy, incomplete and ‘subjective’ evidence that shouldn’t have been used and won’t wash with the Treasury. He called on the Trust to carry out a search for new clear greenfield sites that could be better than Watford and offer more than any current greenfield proposals.

To read the full press release issued by Mike Penning click here