2:10pm Thursday 26th February 2009
By John Harrison
Two local MPs have questioned when, if ever, Watford's new hospital will be ready to treat its first patient.
A letter from the region's Strategic Health Authority (SHA), seen by the Watford Observer, has revealed the project is now not due for completion until 2016 - three years later than originally planned.
MP for South West Hertfordshire, David Gauke, who obtained the information following a parliamentary request, described the delay as “very disappointing”.
Mr Gauke said: “At the last election, the Government promised a £300 million hospital in Watford by 2013. “We already knew that the expenditure had been cut back but it is now clear that, in the last three years, this project has been put back by three years. “With many Government projects unravelling because of funding difficulties, this further delay raises serious concerns as to whether Watford will ever get the new hospital we have been promised.”
Hemel Hempstead's MP, Mike Penning, who has campaigned against the centralisation of acute services at Watford, also questioned whether the hospital would see the light of day.
Mr Penning, who is a Conservative minister for health, said: “This news confirms my view that there is a major doubt about the Watford project.
“This is the first time we have seen a breakdown of the slippage.”
The two-page letter, dated February 17, says the local NHS trust is currently drawing up an outline business case for the hospital.
The SHA estimates it will advertise for a financial partner in early 2010 and construction will begin by the end of 2012.
The new hospital is now scheduled to open in early 2016.
The news comes after local health campaigners claimed the proposed hospital is too ambitious and NHS bosses will not be able to raise the finances to pay for it.
The hospital is due to be funded by private finance initiative (PFI). However, the current lending crisis has cast doubt over the prospect of the money being secured.
Last month, Jan Filochowski, chief executive of West Herts Hospitals Trust, told this paper the project remains on track and he was confident of getting the cash.
In the letter, Neil McKay, the chief executive of East of England's SHA said he too was “confident plans are affordable and that a suitable partner will be found”.
He said hospital bosses were confident the economy will have stabilised by the time the money is needed in “well over two-and-a-half years time”.
However, Mr Penning has demanded answers now.
He added: “Is this project slipping because of problems with the site or is it slipping because they don't have the money?
“I think they need to come clean.”
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