NHS Hertfordshire leaving us in the lurch over Urgent Care Centre

Anne Main reacts to news that the Urgent Care Centre proposal for the St Albans City Hospital Site has officially been cancelled.

She said:

“It is clear now that St Albans has once again been led down the garden path by the NHS in Hertfordshire, and once again left in the lurch in terms of NHS Services. I have written to the outgoing Chief Executive, Anne Walker, to request urgent talks about this, although I doubt very much that they will be prepared to reconsider what is obviously a decision based purely on the cost-cutting grounds. Their own press release talks about wishing to drive up services. I find it hard to believe that they have chosen this care option for that reason.”

“It is clear that the meeting we had at the town hall just before the election was a token gesture and the representatives who attended on behalf of the PCT were just not listening to local people, who made their views quite clear.”

“Over recent years Anne Walker made a strong case that the proposed Super Hospital was an unaffordable model, and that an Urgent Care Centre was the best way forward. She suggested this was the only forward, as part of a sustainable business plan that delivered top healthcare for local people in St Albans. So, what has changed?”

“We are now expected to believe that this third option is the best way forward. Why don’t they just come clean and say it is all they can afford, not ideally what they would like to do? I am fuming that so much money has once again been wasted on pointless consultations on the plan for an Urgent Care Centre, which it would appear had little chance of coming to fruition. Anne Walker is now departing her role, and we are being left in the lurch to pick up the pieces. She ought to be prepared to face the people of St Albans and explain herself.”