Public Presentation on New Hospital Announced

Living Magazines Hospital Aerial View

Would you like to have a 21st-century, patient-centred hospital, centrally located and easy to get to, on a clear site in West Hertfordshire? Then head to a public presentation at Berkhamsted Town Hall on Wednesday 14 September at 7.30pm, to find out more.

As reported in our Summer issue, the project designer and project manager for the ‘Outstanding’ CQC rated Hospice of St Francis, Gordon Yearwood, believes that all our healthcare services should and could be of a similar high standard. He considers this to be an essential element of an advanced society.

However, his analysis shows that our country’s national hospital services perform very poorly in relation to other similarly developed countries and that our local hospital provider is one of the worst-performing hospital Trusts in the country.

His analysis shows that ‘much of the national and local healthcare under performance, stems not from lack of funding, but from fragmented, outdated, hierarchical operational practices and poor investment decision making by senior NHS staff’.

West Herts 21 Century Hospital Solution was formed as a non-profit organisation, to get real transformation in hospital services, through achieving a purpose-built, 21st-century designed, patient-centred, acute general NHS Hospital (including A&E, maternity and planned surgery) for the people of West Hertfordshire, centrally located between the three main towns of St Albans, Watford and Hemel Hempstead.

The Government has indicated that up to £590 million could be provided for a ‘new’ hospital for the people of West Hertfordshire, as part of its 40 new hospitals programme. Gordon believes this money could be used to build the new centrally located hospital on a clear site, with room for future expansion.

But instead, Gordon says, local NHS senior staff want to spend £940 million building a tower block hospital, in the sloping car park area of the existing Watford General Hospital. He says: ‘Their proposed skyscraper hospital would be far taller than Grenfell Towers. Hertfordshire’s Fire and Rescue Service’s tallest ladder could only reach half way up the tower. This very expensive, unsafe proposal cannot be in the best interest of patients and the staff who care for them.

‘Their proposed skyscraper hospital is also far from centrally located for all the people of West Hertfordshire and situated immediately adjacent to Watford Football Club. Do our local NHS senior staff not realise that it is unsafe to have women in labour, trying to get to the maternity department, when the roads are gridlocked by the traffic of more than 20,000 football supporters?’

The pictured design for the West Herts 21 Century Hospital Solution has now successfully been completed and further donations to help progress the project, can be sent to: West Herts 21 Century Hospital Solution, Sort code 30-90-99, Account number 28468468.