12:33pm Tuesday 20th February 2007
By Staff reporter
A LEGAL challenge to the proposed major shift of hospital services from Hemel Hempstead to Watford has been launched.
A pensioner from Hemel Hempstead, Donald Giddings, has applied for the decision to move all acute services including the accident and emergency department to be overturned by a judicial review.
The move has forced the West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs both sites, to suspend any irreversible work, including construction of a £28million 28-bed acute admissions unit at Watford.
St Albans MP Anne Main said she supported the challenge and hoped it would be successful as Watford would be much more difficult to get to for most people in St Albans.
She said: "I am glad someone is challenging the trust.
"It will cost them money they can ill afford, but if it stops this slash-and-burn approach to hospital services then it will be worthwhile.
"People in St Albans are desperately unhappy about what has been done - they will have to trek through heavy Watford traffic."
A judge will decide whether to grant a judicial review into the trust's decision at a hearing within a fortnight. If granted, this would be likely to be resolved in two or three months, depending on the availability of court time.
Work on the acute admissions unit, a three-storey, 6,000 square-metre building complete with X-ray machine and CT scanner, will take about a year.
But although it has won planning permission, no progress can be made unless and until the trust wins the legal wrangle.
A trust spokesman said: "Work at Watford General Hospital has had to be put on hold pending the outcome of the legal processes.
"This will mean a delay to the building of the Acute Admissions Unit (AAU) planned for the site.
"The new building will be adjacent to the current accident and emergency department, with appropriate access to the main hospital block. The AAU will offer a modern healthcare environment in which to provide excellent clinical care for acutely ill patients.
"The AAU facility will enable a concentration of clinical staff and services to improve early and accurate diagnosis of clinical needs, with quick decisions about the follow-on care required."
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