Government betrays St Albans yet again on the NHS

Anne Main, MP for St Albans, has reacted angrily to news that the planned Urgent Care Centre at St Albans City Hospital has been scrapped. Hertfordshire Primary Care Trusts Chief Executive Anne Walker informed Anne Main by telephone earlier today that St Albans City Hospital would no longer be having the planned centre.

In 2006, the promised ‘super-hospital’ was scrapped, and a reconfiguration of services led to many local facilities being placed in Watford. St Albans was promised extra facilities at the City Hospital site, including the Urgent Care Centre, but it was announced today that these plans have been scrapped due to lack of funds.

Anne said:
“I am disgusted that yet again, at the eleventh hour, proposed services for St Albans have been scrapped due to the lack of money. I have been fighting since 2005 to get more services in the City Hospital site and I believe that with the arrival of the elective care centre we were starting to make some progress with additional facilities for local people.

Nationally, £110 billion has been poured into the NHS by this Government, but St Albans has not seen the benefits. Under Labour, we can’t even have a funding allocation for Hertfordshire sufficient to deliver decent local services for my constituents. The public are entitled to know where the money has gone. Funding for the NHS has been frittered away on costly IT systems, Government targets and expensive consultants rather than being spent in areas like St Albans delivering front line services. I have called for a senior member of staff at the PCT to come to an urgent public meeting next week to explain their decision to local people.”