14 June 2005
Hemel hospital service cuts to be accelerated to save money and balance the budget.
At a meeting last Friday Mike Penning MP and David Gauke MP met with the Chair and Chief executive of the West Hertfordshire Hospital Trust and were told of their plans to impose savage cuts at Hemel Hospital and further burden the resources at Watford Hospital. The need to make the cuts had arisen from a directive issued to the Health Authority by the Department of Health at a meeting on 4th May this year. The planned closure of Acute A&E services at Hemel Hospital scheduled for 2012[1] is to brought forward six years to April 2006 in order to save money. The list of proposed cuts put forward at a meeting held on 23rd May include, closing the Hemel Birthing Unit, reducing beds, reducing the number of operations, reducing the number of Consultants secretaries, standardising prosthetics and a long list of other cuts. Of the £26m annual cost savings proposed some £10m is expected to come from the accelerated implementation of the infamous ‘Investing in Your Health Plan’. The Trust confirmed that these cuts would mean ward closures at Hemel and an end to ‘blue light’ ambulances to Hemel’s A&E before April next year.
The Trust confirmed that the accelerated transfer of services to Watford would mean a shortfall of sixty beds at Watford. They also acknowledged that following the transfer of acute services to Watford it might be argued that Watford would no longer need to be redeveloped if this transfer proved successful and that in any event the early transfer of services to Watford may make it more difficult to develop the Watford site.
Mike Penning, MP for Hemel Hempstead, who asked for the meeting was shocked and said:
“So the truth is out at last. Our Hospital Trust is so under funded by the government that they are in danger of becoming insolvent and in their own words unless something is done soon they will not be able to pay the staff wages. It seems to me that the needs of the people of Hemel Hempstead have no influence and only cost cutting to meet arbitrary government budgets are all that matter. Not only do we in Hemel start to lose our acute A&E this year but when we find ourselves rushed to Watford in an ambulance we will be heading for a facility not expanded to cope with the extra demand. These cuts are not based on medical need but because of inadequate government funding and mismanagement., Our local health management have proved to be inept at managing their finances and our services. I really wonder how they can be trusted with a £ billion expansion. I have asked for an urgent meeting with the Secretary of State on this issue.”
At a meeting last Friday Mike Penning MP and David Gauke MP met with the Chair and Chief executive of the West Hertfordshire Hospital Trust and were told of their plans to impose savage cuts at Hemel Hospital and further burden the resources at Watford Hospital. The need to make the cuts had arisen from a directive issued to the Health Authority by the Department of Health at a meeting on 4th May this year. The planned closure of Acute A&E services at Hemel Hospital scheduled for 2012[1] is to brought forward six years to April 2006 in order to save money. The list of proposed cuts put forward at a meeting held on 23rd May include, closing the Hemel Birthing Unit, reducing beds, reducing the number of operations, reducing the number of Consultants secretaries, standardising prosthetics and a long list of other cuts. Of the £26m annual cost savings proposed some £10m is expected to come from the accelerated implementation of the infamous ‘Investing in Your Health Plan’. The Trust confirmed that these cuts would mean ward closures at Hemel and an end to ‘blue light’ ambulances to Hemel’s A&E before April next year.
The Trust confirmed that the accelerated transfer of services to Watford would mean a shortfall of sixty beds at Watford. They also acknowledged that following the transfer of acute services to Watford it might be argued that Watford would no longer need to be redeveloped if this transfer proved successful and that in any event the early transfer of services to Watford may make it more difficult to develop the Watford site.
Mike Penning, MP for Hemel Hempstead, who asked for the meeting was shocked and said:
“So the truth is out at last. Our Hospital Trust is so under funded by the government that they are in danger of becoming insolvent and in their own words unless something is done soon they will not be able to pay the staff wages. It seems to me that the needs of the people of Hemel Hempstead have no influence and only cost cutting to meet arbitrary government budgets are all that matter. Not only do we in Hemel start to lose our acute A&E this year but when we find ourselves rushed to Watford in an ambulance we will be heading for a facility not expanded to cope with the extra demand. These cuts are not based on medical need but because of inadequate government funding and mismanagement., Our local health management have proved to be inept at managing their finances and our services. I really wonder how they can be trusted with a £ billion expansion. I have asked for an urgent meeting with the Secretary of State on this issue.”
