Give people the facts on Hemel Hempstead hospital closure, health group tells council

Come clean about healthcare – that’s the demand being made to the NHS and Dacorum Borough Council by a local health group.

In November 2023 the  authorities announced  their idea of building a ‘Health Campus’ on the town’s Market Square. The Hospital would close when the ‘Campus’ was up and running.

But Dacorum Health Action Group (DHAG) says the public are still being kept in the dark about what the Hospital closure plan means for access to healthcare.

The Campus would in fact just be one of scores of ‘Neighbourhood Health Centres’ (NHCs) across England - but none of them serving such a large population as Dacorum.

NHCs will be modest facilities bringing together GPs, mental health, community health, social  care and voluntary services, along with some hospital-style provision. The idea is to improve local access and coordination and provide a simple-to-use ‘one stop shop’ for patients.  

But DHAG says the planned Market Square NHC would probably have very limited accommodation for the thousands of hospital appointments which now take place at Hemel Hospital.

The Group criticises the NHS and Council for failing to explain in detail the facilities on the one-acre Market Square site. Among key unanswered questions are:

·         Will there be any face-to-face appointments with hospital doctors at the eHehealth centre?

·         Will the centre be big enough to handle the 47,000 cases currently seen at Hemel Hospital’s urgent treatment centre?

·         Where will the 400-plus cars now parking on the Hospital site be accommodated? The only really feasible place will be the already well-used Water Gardens car parks

·         How will the health centre be funded? Most new NHCs will use public-private partnerships – recalling  the controversial Private Finance Initiative used to finance hospitals and other public buildings

·         Will the authorities reveal any financial details of planned transactions affecting public assets like the Hospital site and the Market Square? Up to now they have refused to make these public, claiming that their ‘commercial interests’ would be put at risk.

DHAG Chair Philip Aylett says:

‘It is now three years since the plan to build the Hemel Health Campus to replace our Hospital was announced. But the people of Dacorum are none the wiser about it.

‘The closure of Hemel Hospital would be a huge loss - and we still have no idea of the scope and scale of services which would be provided in the Market Square health centre.’

Dr Aylett continued: ‘The authorities should also stop hiding key financial information. They are wrong to put their ‘commercial interest’ above the public interest. We should, for example, be told the details of any sale of the hospital site to a private developer.

‘There are many advantages to better coordination between different health and social care services. But it is absurd to try to squeeze so much into the one-acre Market Square, with no apparent scope for expansion to meet our growing needs.

‘The stated aim of Neighbourhood Health services is to bring ‘care closer to home’. By cutting the working space for hospital doctors, the Hemel plan will drive care further from home. The losers will be all of us,  forced to travel to Watford General for routine appointments.

‘There are some good NHS plans for developing modern facilities on the current Hospital site. In the interests of the people of Dacorum, these need to be explored urgently. The Market Square project should be halted.’