Consulting rooms could be slashed in Market Square Hub
17 July 2026
- The number of local NHS consulting and examination rooms could be drastically reduced if the closure of Hemel’s Hospital goes ahead
- NHS guidelines on the very biggest ‘neighbourhood health centres’, Core++, like the Hub planned for the Market Square, say they should have 31 consulting/exam rooms
- This would be a big cut on the numbers now available for use.
- Just a single 1990s building in Hemel Hospital – Verulam – has about 50 exam and consulting rooms.
- The health centre Hub will also have to house GP and community health services, so the cut in space for hospital style care would be serious
- According to the guidelines, only 16 of the rooms in the biggest heath centres would be for face-to-face consultation by clinicians
- The other 15 would be simple offices for ‘virtual consultation’, with no couch or other professional equipment
- So the Market Square health centre would be a downgrade
- There is nothing wrong with bringing different NHS services together
- The problem with the Hemel Hub is that the site is far too small for our growing and ageing population
- The relevant page from the NHS guidance is this:
