'Super Hospital' plans under threat.
21st June 2006
During a conversation with Nick Carver, Chief Executive of the East and North NHS Trust, Anne Main discovered that the plans for the new Super Hospital in Hatfield, which will serve much of Hertfordshire including St Albans, may not go ahead as planned.
During a conversation with Nick Carver, Chief Executive of the East and North NHS Trust, local St Albans MP Anne Main discovered that the plans for the new Super Hospital in Hatfield, which will serve much of Hertfordshire including St Albans, may not go ahead as planned.
Mr Carver confirmed that the original projected £550 million package that was to pay for the new hospital will not be forthcoming, as new borrowing regimes will only allow at best a 13%-15% or turnover unitary charge. This new calculation will mean that the Trust may only be able to raise funds of an estimated £250-300 million, and there is still a question of whether or not even this figure is realizable as a business proposition. Final assessments of the feasibility of the trust being able to afford this revised figure will be made in the Autumn. However this new lower figure of £250 million means that instead of a 'Super Hospital', what Hatfield may get is (in effect) a new 'District General Hospital' according to Mr Carver, it is still uncertain whether or not a Cancer unit will be included. Mr Carver confirmed that the preferred hospital site will still located in Hatfield.
Anne said of the news, 'There are a number of implications of this revelation, including the fact that this may mean that there may no longer be a new cancer centre at Hatfield, this could mean that St Albans will retain its brand new breast cancer unit. The important thing to remember here is that this cannot all be about money, but any proposal must be about providing the best possible health care to the local community. I am concerned that Mr Carver indicated a 7%-10% staff reduction is in the offing and that in his own words 'an extremely challenging £15millon cost improvement programme' must happen this year. I stressed to Mr Carver that I am determined that St Albans constituents should not be made to suffer to help balance the books for a new District Hospital in Hatfield.'"
