I was disappointed, but not surprised, to read that Watford Borough Council has decided to support the redevelopment of Watford General Hospital. As pointed out by your correspondents Andy Love and Ron Glatter (letters to the editor, March 22), this support cannot be based on facts but seems to be based on false information and a short-sighted parochial interest in maintaining Watford General. The grotesquely exaggerated figure quoted by the Mayor for building a hospital on a new site is just an invention. It has no basis in fact.

West Herts Hospitals Trust’s plans are all based on refurbishing and rebuilding the dilapidated buildings of Watford General Hospital. The proposed plans are for a £350 milllion programme over ten or more years. However, the trust’s own recent Six Facet Survey shows that the buildings of Watford General are in a dreadful condition - a situation that can easily be confirmed by walking around the site. This survey notes that to bring the buildings back up to standard will cost £140 million over 10 years, plus costs for project management, preliminaries and VAT. The Six Facet Survey shows 11 pages of defects at Watford General alone.

Any rebuilding will require new services and infrastructure. The pipework cladding will contain asbestos, so parts of the site will have to be blocked off for long periods during the work. This will have to be done while the main rebuilding and refurbishing work is being done. So, as some buildings are being demolished and rebuilt, others will be refurbished, while all the defects in the remaining buildings and services are being fixed. During this entire time, the hospital will have to operate at full capacity with normal patient numbers. It will be chaos. A nightmare for staff and patients alike.

This will inevitably lead to huge delays and cost overruns. And, at the end, it will be a mishmash of a hospital. It will have some new buildings and some old. It will be on the same fragmented and dysfunctional site. It will not be up to 21st century standards. That’s not only because of the inevitable compromises and cost savings that will need to be made during the building/refurbishing but also through the NHS procedure known as ‘derogation’. By using this procedure, the trust will not be obliged to comply with the latest NHS statutory requirements. The site of Watford General was the site of the Watford Workhouse. It's not the right place for a 21st century hospital for West Herts.

A new 21st century acute general hospital on a new site is what is we require. A new hospital, not just for the 97,000 people of Watford, but for all the 600,000plus people in the West Herts health area. A new 21st century hospital that will serve us, our children and our grandchildren.

Richard Hackett

West Herts