About us
West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is a large acute trust, providing healthcare services to a core catchment population of approximately half a million people living in West Hertfordshire and the surrounding area.
We manage Watford General, Hemel Hempstead and St Albans City hospitals, alongside our therapy unit in Abbotts Langley.
We are part of Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care System and work closely with our partners to deliver effective, joined-up and affordable services.
Our hospitals are located within a short train journey to London and close to the M1 and M25.
We are one of the largest employers locally, with over 5,800 staff.
Watford General Hospital is at the heart of our acute emergency services - the core location for inpatient emergency care, and for all patients who need specialist emergency facilities (such as intensive care). It also provides elective care for higher risk patients together with a full range of outpatient and diagnostic services.
There are approximately 600 beds and nine theatres (including one local theatre). Watford is also the home of our Women's and Children's services, including neonatal care.
Hemel Hempstead Hospital provides urgent care services for the local community via an Urgent Treatment Centre. It also provides outpatient services and pathology.
St Albans City Hospital is our elective care centre. It provides a wide range of elective care (both inpatient low risk surgery and day-case) and a wide range of outpatient and diagnostic services with in excess of 100,000 outpatient appointments.
It has forty beds and six theatres (including one procedure room for ophthalmology) as well as housing our dedicated orthopaedics centre.
Our outpatient physiotherapy is based in our Therapy unit in Abbots Langley. It’s home to our experienced team of physiotherapists, each with speciality areas of expertise.
Services include assessments and treatments for a wide range of musculoskeletal conditions, sports injuries, women’s health conditions and much more to help get patients back to normal activities as soon as possible. Read more about Outpatient Physiotherapy.
Our vision, aims and values
We strive to provide consistently good, safe care in a friendly and informative way, as and when people need and want it and always with dignity and respect.
Our vision
Our vision is very simple, it’s to provide ‘the best care for every patient, every day’.
Our aims
- • Best Care
- • Great Team
- • Best Value
- • Great Place
Our values
Our values are Commitment, Care and Quality
They clearly set out how we work with patients, their family and friends, and partners and the standards they can expect from all of our staff, volunteers and contractors (such as our catering team). Many of our patients helped to create them.
Our values guide staff recruitment and appraisal processes because evidence suggests that hospitals where values are part of the culture improve health outcomes for their patients.
Our redevelopment plans
We have big plans for the future shape of our sites and our services.
The trust is part of the national New Hospital Programme, and we are working hard to secure investment for a major new hospital building on land next to our current site in Watford as well as refurbishment and some new buildings at our hospitals in Hemel Hempstead and St Albans.
We hope to begin construction in 2024, pending a government decision on funding.
Our plans are focused on creating a clear role for our three hospitals; emergency and specialist care services at Watford, planned medical care and long-term conditions at Hemel Hempstead and planned surgery and cancer care at St Albans.
Living in Hertfordshire
Our hospitals are brilliantly located, away from London's big city living costs, but close enough to enjoy its benefits.
And with west Hertfordshire's excellent road and rail connections to many of the UK’s other big cities, you can easily get where you want to go.
There's a wide range of different options for living, excellent schools and plenty to see and do!
