Flatpack hospital delayed (From Watford Observer)

Flatpack hospital delayed

5:10pm Friday 4th July 2008

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The opening of Watford General’s new “flatpack” hospital has been delayed for five months following a series of technical issues.

The hospital’s new, state-of-the-art Acute Admissions Unit (AAU) was put together in just three weeks after the 145 steel “modules” were delivered, piece by piece, on articulated lorries.

The 120-bed new unit, which will provide acute care for patients across west Hertfordshire, including Hemel Hempstead and St Albans, had been expected to open in October.

However, West Hertfordshire Hospitals’ NHS Trust, the organisation that runs Watford General, announced on Wednesday that the date has now been pushed back until 2009.

The Watford Observer heard about the delays last week but health chiefs refused to comment until staff at the hospital had been briefed.

The trust confirmed the AAU would now open in March next year, when emergency services in west Hertfordshire will be centralised at Watford General.

Emergency admissions at Hemel Hempstead General will close once the AAU is open, giving A&E services there a five-month stay of execution.

Jan Filochowski, chief executive of the trust, said the delay was caused by problems of getting more electricity into the new hospital.

He said: “It has been clear for some time that we were not going to be able to open the AAU on the planned date in October. This has been principally due to the need for an additional power supply to the Watford site.

“Although this would only have created a minor delay, it would have meant that we would have been opening close to the Christmas and New Year holidays and the winter peak in emergency admissions in January.

“We have therefore reviewed the scheme and decided to defer the opening until it is as safe to do so as we can possibly make it. The exact date we open is far less important than opening on the right date.”

The AAU will be the biggest and arguably most sophisticated emergency care unit in the country, caring for victims of heart attacks, strokes and other acute illnesses.

However, the centralisation of acute services at Watford has been heavily criticised, particularly by residents in Hemel and St Albans.

Mr Filochowski admitted centralisation was a large task.

He said: “The centralisation is being carried out in a series of phased moves that will ensure patient safety and avoid as much disruption to services as possible.”

Mike Penning, MP for Hemel, said the delay was bitter-sweet news for his residents.

He said: “While I, of course, welcome the delay in closing Hemel’s much needed acute services, I am deeply disappointed that it is purely because of so-called ‘technical reasons’.

“I had hoped that it would have been because the NHS Trust had seen some sense and realised that a town the size of Hemel needs a fully functioning general hospital.”

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