NHS plans suggest little room for hospital services in Hub
- Hospital care will have to fight for space at the Hemel Health Hub planned for Market Square.
- Detailed government plans for ‘neighbourhood health centres’ (NHCs) like the Hub or Campus show that GPs, community and mental health services will dominate
- There will be few consulting and examination rooms – maybe only 16 – and non-hospital services will be the main users of the space
- This very limited accommodation contrasts with the scores of consulting rooms in the current Hemel Hospital
- The drastic cut in local hospital services will mean patients with serious conditions travelling much more to Watford and St Albans Hospitals
- The local numbers of such patients will grow rapidly in future as the total of over-65s increases by 20% by the late 2030s.
- The NHS has published ‘schedules of accommodation’ for several sizes of NHC, including the biggest, Core++
- The Core++ schedule shows that the NHS allows just 100 square metres exclusively for secondary care in the NHCs
- It does not take account of the space for voluntary bodies and cafe/retail units in the Market Square centre promised by the NHS