NHS trust offers £40 for Dacorum residents’ opinions on travelling to hospital sites

A local NHS trust is offering residents £40 to contribute to their new travels plans to find out how visitors and patients travel to hospital sites at Hemel Hempstead, Watford and St Albans.

Working with independent transport consultancy Systra, West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust will run focus groups to hear views about using how they get to their appointments.

They would like to know about patients and visitors’ use of public transport and whether local people would be interested in cycling or walking to their appointments instead of driving to the Hemel Hempstead, Watford and St Albans sites.

Paddy Hennessey, director of environment, said that the new multi-storey car park is making a huge difference to patients and staff coming to Watford General Hospital.

Mr Hennessey said: “We must also be mindful of providing good alternatives to driving, which is important in helping us meet our net zero carbon targets.”

He added: “Finding out how local people currently get to our hospitals and what they might consider in the future really helps our planning, which is why we want to hear views from the communities we serve.”

The online focus groups take place on August 3 and 4 from 5.30pm to 7pm.

People can register their interest here.

The trust has said that there is a limit to the size of the groups so registering an interest will not automatically lead to an invitation to participate.