TRUST AT ODDS WITH HEALTH SECRETARY OVER START DATE FOR WATFORD’S TOWERING INFIRMARY

West Herts Trust caused confusion last week when it disagreed with the Health Secretary over the target start date for building the proposed Watford General towering infirmary.

A Trust release claimed on Friday that building work for the 260-foot triple-towered redeveloped hospital is ‘expected to get underway in 2025’  This contradicts a recent statement by Health Secretary Victoria Atkins that construction was ‘due to start at the end of 2026’.

As well as the muddle over the date, the Trust’s Friday release reheated the discredited claim that the hospital would be ‘fully funded’. Press reporting recently exposed this as meaningless because

a) there is no final clarity about what the project will provide, and

b) all figures are subject to government spending reviews – at a time when budgets are being tightened

The release also appeared to show little understanding of how health professionals are trained, claiming that:

‘As one of the biggest employers in the area, with 5,800 staff, the Trust will continue to develop a pipeline of future doctors, nurses and clinicians from the local area, working in close partnership with West Herts College and other partners.’

This suggests that staff will come entirely from West Herts.  It also hints that doctors and nurses are not clinicians.

Most oddly of all, the release gives the impression that West Herts College has a medical school. That College is an excellent institution but it does not train doctors.  

People want facts about their hospitals, not muddle and spin.