Residents call for Hemel Hempstead Hospital to be utilised during coronavirus pandemic

Residents are calling for Hemel Hempstead Hospital to be reopened during the coronavirus pandemic to ease the pressure on neighbouring hospitals.

The hospital, on Hillfield Road, has an urgent treatment centre and offers other local healthcare facilities such as diagnostic services, including MRI and cold pathology, and an outpatient service. It also provides twelve stroke rehabilitation beds.

Residents are asking West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust - who run Hemel Hempstead Hospital, Watford General Hospital and St Albans City Hospital - to utilise the facilities at Hemel Hempsead to ease the pressure on other hospitals, the Trust declared a critical incident at Watford General Hospital on Saturday and told people not to attend after a technical issue with oxygen equipment.

The hospital said the incident did not pose any risk to patients and the problem was resolved by 10.30pm that night, but the incident has concerned some residents.

Ronald Beresford, from Hemel Hempstead, said: "Watford Hospital, which the people of Hemel Hempstead are forced to use, was forced to close on Saturday for everything but maternity births.

"They have taken our hospital away from us and they can not provide the service, as demonstrated at the weekend.

"That hospital now has to take care of patients in Watford, Hemel Hempstead and St Albans, it is not working.

"They should just give us back our hospital.

"This emergency proves that the people of Hemel Hempstead, a large expanding town and population, should have a proper hospital restored with urgency and immediacy.

"I have lived here since 1953 and we have always had a perfectly good hospital.

"They wanted to combine the services but it has not worked, they should reopen Hemel Hempstead Hospital."

Sadakat Khan added: "We have a purpose built hospital which surely can be reopened with some work quickly?

"As COVID19 spreads in our communities we should be looking for ways to look after our communities.

"The excel has been opened as a hospital, but hospitals that are already built but closed are not being reopened. With a little investment we could re open our hospital surely.

"If not a main hub for coronavirus, then a way to ease the amount of patients Watford and Luton have.

"We take the less serious patients in hospital for other reasons and they have more space to deal with COVID19 patients.

"This may reduce the amount of spread in hospitals with people who may have low immune systems in for other reasons etc if this avenue is used. So many different options for them and they should surely be looked at."

A spokesperson for the NHS said the Trust does not have a shortage of beds and it is making full use of Hemel Hempstead Hospital.

She said: “West Herts Hospitals NHS Trust has responded to the unprecedented challenges by taking a number of measures.

“Following national advice, the trust stopped carrying out non-urgent procedures to enable staff to care for the sickest patients.

"The resulting reduction in routine admissions has allowed the hospital trust to turn a number of wards, theatres and recovery spaces into areas for acute medical care.

"This includes specialist areas with ventilators and other respiratory equipment, where specialist staff can work. There is not a shortage of beds.

“Hemel Hempstead Hospital does not have these facilities and could not be brought up to the required standards within a reasonable timeframe.

"At the same time, the Trust is making full use of Simpson Ward at Hemel Hempstead Hospital to look after a number of non-ventilated patients with coronavirus.

“The Trust needed to close the A&E department for a while on Saturday, following a technical problem with the oxygen supply.”

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