Some may think that it’s all over for those campaigning for a new site for west Herts’ A&E hospital now that West Herts Hospital Trust’s board have approved plans to rebuild Watford General, with some new build and refurbishment at their other two sites.

The trust’s redevelopment team said that their plans were the fastest route to delivering new buildings and that is why they recommended that their board approve these plans rather than question the validity of the previous decision to rule out a new site option.

The £1.25billion required for the trust’s redevelopment plans is already a staggering sum and the trust admitted this figure could rise still further once the estimated costs have been adjusted to include the latest inflation indices.

This begs the question as to how confident are the trust in getting the required funding for their plans? Latest national news articles suggest that funding decisions for the eight pathfinder trusts, which WHHT are one of, has been halted and that there are strong discussions going on between the different government departments involved as to how to proceed with the programme for 40 new hospitals. There is also a suggestion that less costly projects will be prioritised for funding over very expensive projects like WHHT’s!

So unless our trust have been informed that the £1.25bn funding for their preferred options has been secured, which is highly unlikely given the Government’s initial pledge for 40 new hospitals was for only £3.7bn, the trust may well be asked to consider other cheaper options. The problem with the trust’s other shortlisted options is that the trust have said that to adequately refurbish the current dilapidated Watford General Hospital would likely be just as expensive as building new and would cause more problems for the trust trying to maintain hospital services whilst undertaking major construction work on the current footprint of buildings.

There is a real possibility that the trust will be asked to look at different options and configurations to those that they have included in their short list. This could range from looking at a single site solution for all of west Herts’ hospital services through to a new stand alone A&E hospital which wouldn’t need to be on the same scale as the high-rise buildings planned for the Vicarage Road site.

Campaigners are still convinced that a well chosen new site option for west Herts’ new A&E hospital would offer a superior solution to the trust’s plans whilst being significantly cheaper, less disruptive and quicker to complete if the trust had allowed a level playing field for all options to be evaluated.

Those leaving the trust’s redevelopment team in the next few months probably know that it is a good time to be getting out given the likelihood that the trust’s full funding request will probably be rejected. What is really annoying is that Helen Brown and her team have had years to instigate a fully independent site search to find a more suitable location for west Herts’ main hospital but failed to do so. The trust’s “fresh eyes approach” claimed that starting the search would now take too long, the costs couldn’t be justified and the process could end in failure - ironically, that could end up being the fate of the trust’s preferred options given that affordability now appears to be the main determining factor in deciding which trust’s receive full funding for their hospital redevelopments!

Andrew Love

St Albans resident