TRUST CUTS DOWN ON PUBLIC QUESTIONS ABOUT HOSPITAL PLANS

West Herts Trust has drastically reduced the number of opportunities for the public to question it about its redevelopment plans.

During the worst of the Covid crisis, senior staff explained and defended their ideas for the future, including Watford’s towering infirmary, in a series of online events for the general public.  Hundreds took part.

But in mid-2022 two senior staff with special responsibility for the new hospital project left the Trust – and since then the number of public discussions offered by the Trust has plummeted.

Figures obtained by the New Hospital Campaign (NHC) show that a grand total of just 43 people attended Trust general public events on redevelopment in the whole of 2023.

Not one general public event was in Dacorum, with its population of 155,000. 

But one body  – the St Albans and Harpenden Patients Group – has been favoured with two visits by Trust redevelopment staff in the last two years. The organisation describes itself as ‘a group that represents the public, Total recorded attendance at its two events on redevelopment was 8.

This was the St Albans Group’s comment on the Trust’s redevelopment plans in 2022:  ‘we strongly support the Trust’s three-site option.’

The figures obtained by the NHC are FOI 7042 attachment 1