We received a petition asking:
“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to save Hemel Hempstead’s Hospital from closure.”
Details of Petition:
“There are serious concerns about the plans of West Hertfordshire Hospital NHS Trust to close services at Hemel Hempstead hospital. These cuts are aimed at generating financial savings and are not based on clinical expertise or need. The hospital has been continuously under threat by various attempts to close and relocate it for more than 30 years. Today, however, we see plans to relocate it so it is merged with Watford Hospital as a ’super hospital’. Watford’s catchment area is close to 200,000 people. Watford, amongst many things is well known for it’s football club. On Saturdays, the football club has a population of up to 20,000 people. This makes traffic!! If the hospitals are combined this means a total of over 400,000 people to be served by one hospital that is up to 1 hour away (on an average day) from much of the population. 400,000 people is a lot of people to be served by one hospital! We, the petitioners, therefore request that the House of Commons urge the Secretary of State for Health to use her powers to reverse the proposed plans and to listen to the concerns of the public.”
· Read the petition
· Petitions homepage
Read the Government’s response
The East of England Strategic Health Authority (SHA) states that there are no plans to close Hemel Hempstead hospital. Following thorough consultation, the Hertfordshire Primary Care Trusts (PCTs), in conjunction with West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust, have proposed to consolidate major acute and emergency services at Watford General hospital. It has also been proposed to develop a local general hospital in Hemel Hempstead and:
· to develop a network of Urgent Care Centres, including one at Hemel Hempstead hospital;
· to consolidate children’s services with acute services in Watford; and
· to locate a Surgicentre for west Hertfordshire in St Albans to treat patients requiring planned (elective) care.
The SHA has further advised that the Hertfordshire review was not about finance. The review was led by doctors and nurses, who are convinced that they will be able to deliver better, safer and more effective care from a single acute site. The Trusts’ senior clinical staff believe that working across two hospital sites in east and north Hertfordshire and three in west Hertfordshire has hugely limited their ability to meet rising clinical standards for all their patients. Without this change, they believe that services - especially those provided in an emergency - will decline to a point where some may even need to be removed on clinical safety grounds.
During the consultation, West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust highlighted the need to centralise emergency services and separate emergency and elective care. Prior to the Trust taking responsibility for acute childrens’ services, and following advice from the Department of Health, emergency services for children were centralised at Watford General hospital. This allows the majority of paediatricians and paediatric nurses to work on a single site, providing a more robust paediatric services.
The SHA further states that there are no plans to merge Hemel Hempstead hospital and Watford hospital. Hemel Hempstead hospital will continue to provide a wide range of services, including an Urgent Care Centre. It is envisaged that approximately 65 per cent of people who currently attend the Hemel Hempstead hospital Accident and Emergency (A&E) unit will continue to be treated at the Hemel Hempstead Urgent Care Centre. Emergency and major acute care will be provided at Watford General hospital, where a range of specialists will be able to treat them, ensuring better, safer care for those patients and improved clinical outcomes.
The transition of acute services from Hemel Hempstead hospital to Watford General hospital is being co-ordinated by West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust with West Hertfordshire PCT and the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust. The transition will begin in early February and will be phased over a number of weeks; it is planned that the Acute Admissions Unit will be fully operational by mid-March. The moves are being planned by clinicians, supported by managers, and the impact of the moves will be closely monitored during the transfer and beyond.
Turning to the concerns about transport and access at the Watford General hospital site, the East of England SHA has advised that the Trust is extremely conscious of the public concerns regarding patient access issues associated with the centralisation of emergency services at Watford General and is exploring a number of ways to reduce these concerns.
The Trust feels it is worth noting that the greater numbers of journeys undertaken by patients are related to attending either an outpatient appointment or to have a diagnostic test. Patients living in the Hemel Hempstead area will continue to attend Hemel Hempstead hospital for the vast majority of these services. Those patients living in the St Albans area will attend St Albans City hospital as they do now and likewise Watford resident patients will attend Watford General. The majority of patients requiring day surgery and non-complex elective surgery currently attend St Albans City hospital and will continue to do so.
Furthermore, paramedics are highly trained clinical staff and are in a position to recommend whether patients should be transferred as a ‘blue light’ emergency to the most appropriate A&E department, whether they should be taken to an Urgent Care Centre or whether, in fact, the patient should stay at home and be given an appointment for a GP visit. This level of discretion regarding where a patient’s needs will best be met has reduced the number of patients who have to attend the hospital at all.
That said, in response to the scale of concern regarding the access issues, the Trust is working closely with other local organisations, including Watford Borough Council, Hertfordshire County Council and Hertfordshire Partnership Trust to share information about the traffic management systems and the transport network that are already in place and to make decisions about additional measures that can be introduced, for example improving access to the Watford site, increasing car parking at Watford and
improving passenger and inter-site transport. The Trust has held extensive discussions with the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust about the impact of the centralisation on its services. It is satisfied that the centralisation will be of great benefit to the ambulance service in assisting the delivery of a high quality service to patients.
The Department believes that local NHS organisations understand the healthcare needs and requirements of the local population and are best placed to make decisions about the commissioning and provision of local healthcare services. Residents who have concerns about service changes at Hemel Hempstead hospital should raise them directly with West Hertfordshire PCT.
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