TRUST TO REVIEW NEW HOSPITAL SITE OPTIONS

REVIEW OF DECISION TO BUILD AT WATFORD GENERAL AS TRUST BOW TO PRESSURE

Opposition to plans to redevelop Watford General has forced West Herts Trust to agree to review their decision. Amid signs that support for the Trust’s proposals among key local councils is crumbling, the Trust say they will be taking a ‘fresh eyes approach’ to the decision at a Board meeting on 31 May.

The U-turn follows a February meeting at which local health group the New Hospital Campaign (NHC) and others put their case for a new hospital on a clear and accessible central site to Health Secretary Sajid Javid.

In a letter sent today to Phil Townsend, the Trust Board Chair, NHC Co-ordinator Philip Aylett says:

‘I am glad that you and your colleagues are, at last, now apparently prepared to challenge officials to justify their approach.

‘The imminent departures of both the CEO and Deputy CEO, the present hiatus in the New Hospital Programme, the Secretary of State’s consideration of the evidence presented to him by the NHC and, maybe, some of the NHS failings we have heard about recently, all offer the Board a convenient and valuable opportunity to re-set.’

The NHC today sent the Trust their contribution to the review – the detailed submission the Campaign made to the Secretary of State following the meeting with him in February. That recommended that an independent expert body should be commissioned ‘to carry out a full review of options for acute redevelopment in West Hertfordshire. This review should include options for a clear site.’

To read the full press release click here

Click here for the letter sent today to Phil Townsend, West Herts Hospital Trust Chairman

For our full submission to Sajid Javid, Secretary of State for Health, click here