3 June 2005
Mike Penning MP has a fiery encounter with Strategic Health Authority.
Mike Penning, MP for Hemel Hempstead, today met with the Chair and Chief Executive of the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Strategic Health Authority for a frank and what turned out to be, a fiery exchange of views. Mike had asked for an urgent meeting to discuss the authority’s plans for the healthcare of his constituents and was joined at the meeting by Anne Main, the newly elected MP for St. Albans. Ian White, Chair, and John de Braux, Chief Executive, refused to accept Mike’s point that the plans to downgrade Hemel’s hospital were against the best interests of the residents of the Hemel Hempstead area. They added that they have done everything within the law and had strictly adhered to the prescribed public consultation process. When questioned, they stated that the first steps of the proposed new Hatfield development were imminent. Their Business plan was ready for authorisation and this would be followed by the negotiation of a PFI (Private Finance Initiative) for the construction of the Hatfield and Watford facilities. The fact that this PFI was to be a joint Watford and Hatfield project yet again suggests their determination to bulldoze through these changes trying to remove any options for the residents of Hemel to prevent or change them. Mike Penning informed them that the ‘sign off’ of both the Secretary of State for Health and the Chancellor would be needed to authorise this and that he would fight against this in Parliament. Mike asked for a categorical assurance that there were no plans for the existing Hemel hospital site to be sold off to developers and received the reply “we can’t give that assurance”.
Mike commented after the meeting; “The fact that they will not give this assurance says to me that they must be considering it or have already decided to do it. This was my first encounter as an MP with the unelected local health bureaucrats. It was a fiery encounter and they can expect more of the same.”
Photo: Mike Penning outside Hemel Hospital.
Mike Penning, MP for Hemel Hempstead, today met with the Chair and Chief Executive of the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Strategic Health Authority for a frank and what turned out to be, a fiery exchange of views. Mike had asked for an urgent meeting to discuss the authority’s plans for the healthcare of his constituents and was joined at the meeting by Anne Main, the newly elected MP for St. Albans. Ian White, Chair, and John de Braux, Chief Executive, refused to accept Mike’s point that the plans to downgrade Hemel’s hospital were against the best interests of the residents of the Hemel Hempstead area. They added that they have done everything within the law and had strictly adhered to the prescribed public consultation process. When questioned, they stated that the first steps of the proposed new Hatfield development were imminent. Their Business plan was ready for authorisation and this would be followed by the negotiation of a PFI (Private Finance Initiative) for the construction of the Hatfield and Watford facilities. The fact that this PFI was to be a joint Watford and Hatfield project yet again suggests their determination to bulldoze through these changes trying to remove any options for the residents of Hemel to prevent or change them. Mike Penning informed them that the ‘sign off’ of both the Secretary of State for Health and the Chancellor would be needed to authorise this and that he would fight against this in Parliament. Mike asked for a categorical assurance that there were no plans for the existing Hemel hospital site to be sold off to developers and received the reply “we can’t give that assurance”.
Mike commented after the meeting; “The fact that they will not give this assurance says to me that they must be considering it or have already decided to do it. This was my first encounter as an MP with the unelected local health bureaucrats. It was a fiery encounter and they can expect more of the same.”
Photo: Mike Penning outside Hemel Hospital.
