Dear Mr Hancock, NHS regulators and West Herts MPs,

I started a petition on the government petitions website calling for the government to fund a new NHS A&E hospital for West Herts. To date the petition has only 1,330 signatures!

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/231572

I have decided that should my petition not reach at least 10,000 signatures, closing date the 7th May, I will regrettably cease my campaigning.

Never has West Herts had a better opportunity to replace its worn out and historically located hospitals. Now is the time to be planning for a brand new and more accessible ‘state of the art’ A&E hospital away from the back streets of West Watford and Watford Football Club. Nothing against Watford General Hospital but it is a depressing looking building in a very built up area. Pushing a wheelchair around that hilly site is a real effort for anyone let alone the elderly. I would love to see the Secretary of State for Health - Matt Hancock, Chairman of HVCCG - Dr Nicholas Small and the Mayor of Watford take the challenge to wheel patients around the site without deliberately trying to avoid the sharp slopes between the buildings - it might help them to understand that the Vicarage Road site is as much not fit for purpose as the site’s dilapidated hospital buildings.

Anyone who watched the BBC programme “Surgeons: At the Edge of Life” that was filmed at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital, would surely be impressed with the hospital and the facilities it offers. Why is Hertfordshire not worthy of such modern and well designed buildings and facilities? Why put £350 million into a dilapidated hospital that needs double that amount just to get anywhere near being considered acceptable. That is without spending hundreds of millions on Hemel Hempstead and St Albans City hospitals that are equally in need of substantial investment. To think that West Herts had three A&E hospitals and also the use of the nearby Welwyn Garden City QE2 hospital thirty years ago and had a significantly smaller population!

I wonder how many of those currently making the decisions on behalf of the WHHT, HVCCG and the NHS regulators will have moved on when the repercussions arise should WHHT get approval to redevelop Watford General Hospital. Yes, all that construction and demolition work going on all around patients, staff and a live hospital!

There are many examples of new hospitals that are built, being built or trusts are planning to build - West Herts Hospital Trust are trying to convince us that the government and NHS regulators have refused them permission to even evaluate the option of a new A&E hospital for West Herts on a greenfield site.

Unless good judgement and financial prudence prevail over the next few months, West Herts residents will never benefit from the state of the art hospital facilities enjoyed by other areas of the UK.

West Herts Hospital Trust need to stop behaving like a small trust and draw up plans, like the Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust are pursuing, for a brand new and deliverable A&E hospital.

Watford General Hospital is struggling to cope looking after West Herts’ current population. In fifteen years WHHT might be serving 750,000 residents. Frightening thought to end with should this be my last campaign email!

Andrew Love

St Albans resident