Hospital trust shares ‘shovel-ready’ plans with Health Secretary
Posted: 13 April 2022
The meeting took place in Westminster on the afternoon of Monday 11 April.
The trust is hoping to secure funding to move all of its clinical services at Watford General Hospital into new buildings on land next to its current site as well as carrying out extensive refurbishment to its hospitals in Hemel Hempstead and St Albans.
Phil Townsend said: “We were very grateful for the opportunity to present our ‘shovel-ready’ plans for our three hospitals. It was good to explain how our proposal addresses the urgent need to provide new and better buildings.
“With outline planning permission in place, plans for our services across our sites worked through and our multi-storey car park finished on time and on budget, it was easy for the Secretary of State to see how quickly we could move onto the construction phase at Watford.
“We left him in no doubt that we are ready to welcome the diggers just as soon as we can! The fact that we have completed our new £40m multi-storey car park with minimal disruption to patients, staff and visitors shows what can be done. Our current buildings will continue to function as we create a brand new building on our new site.
“Aside from the bricks and mortar, we were pleased that Sajid Javid understood that our senior clinicians have been with us every step of the way on this journey and that our plans have been developed with them. He also heard how keen our workforce is to see change and that they support our plans. It was an encouraging meeting and we very much appreciate the time and attention given to our proposals.”
- For more information, please contact the communications team on: 01923 436280 or email: westherts.communications@nhs.net. For out of hours media enquiries please call the Watford General Hospital switchboard on 01923 244366 and ask for the on call communications manager.
- West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves people from across Hertfordshire, north London and further afield. It operates from three hospitals; Watford General, St Albans City and Hemel Hempstead. The trust has a catchment area of over 500,000 people and is one of the largest employers locally, with around 5,000 staff and volunteers.
- For more information about our hospitals, visit www.westhertshospitals.nhs.uk. You can also join our followers on Twitter (twitter.com/westhertsNHS) and find us on Facebook (facebook.com/westhertsNHS).
