'Our residents deserve better' councillors slam timetable for Watford General Hospital rebuild

Bosses at the West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals Trust had expected the redevelopment of the Watford site to get underway as early as this year (2025).

But last month, the Department for Health and Social Care announced that construction was not expected to start until some time between 2032 and 2034.

And at a meeting of the county council on Tuesday (25 February) councillors expressed concerns relating to the condition of existing buildings, the cost of maintenance and the impact on patients.

Conservative Councillor Dee Hart – who is chair of Hertfordshire’s health scrutiny committee – said she was “disappointed” that Watford General – and the Princess Alexandra Hospital, in Harlow – would have to wait so long before construction would start.

She said the decision was “hardly fair” to staff who work there or patients using the hospital facilities.

And she told councillors: “Our residents deserve better.”

Vice chair of the scrutiny committee Liberal Democrat Councillor Chris White said the Watford timetable made no sense in terms of the increasing maintenance costs. And he pointed to the need “to keep pressing the case”.

“Ten years away is close to never in government thinking – it is more than one parliament,” he said.

“And we have waited long enough for this.

“We stuck up for the NHS as a council – we will continue to do so.

“It makes no sense at all in terms of the repairs bill, that will accelerate exponentially.”

And he added: “We have to keep pressing the case.”

Meanwhile Liberal Democrat Councillor Stephen Giles-Medhurst – who told councillors he had been a patient there recently – said the time-tabling decision was “deplorable for Hertfordshire”.

And while praising the staff for their “sterling service”, he highlighted the “dreadful” conditions he had witnessed inside Watford General – suggesting it would “fall apart” in 10 years.

“The staff have to put up with so much in terms of decrepit buildings , decrepit out-buildings, leaking roofs, mouldy ceilings, I have to say as well I have seen that.

“It is just not acceptable to push it into the long grass – two parliaments down the line.

“And quite frankly Labour councillors here, and elsewhere, and Labour MPs in Hertfordshire need to step-up to the mark and demand the government rethink their strategy.”

Councillor Giles-Medhurst pointed to the increasing maintenance costs – suggesting there was tens of millions of pounds that could be spent on a new hospital, rather than “keeping decrepit, falling buildings from not actually falling down”.

And referencing the county council elections, he said that irrespective of politics and parties, they needed “to keep going way beyond the first of May to get this changed”.

Labour Councillor Nigel Bell also expressed disappointment in the decision – but pointed to the lack of funds allocated by the previous Conservative government.

“Clearly we were disappointed on the question of the west Herts and Watford hospital when the government review looked into it,” he said.

“Sadly the previous government had no more money beyond March, which is next month. So I am afraid that’s where we found ourselves.

“But we will do all we can, certainly on our side, to push the government to see if we can start earlier. And clearly if things improve we will, I hope, start earlier.”