St Albans MP warns hospital plans may collapse (From St Albans & Harpenden Review)

St Albans MP warns hospital plans may collapse

3:53pm Monday 26th January 2009

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A LEAKED email has revealed that the planned expansion of Watford General Hopital is likely to fall victim to the economic slump, according to St Albans MP Anne Main.

Summarising a meeting between health chiefs and Secretary of State for Health Alan Johnson, the email states: "Hospitals were due to be built as part of the private finance initiative, but the credit crunch has led to problems raising cash from the private sector.

“The bad news is around capital schemes that would have been PFIs (private finance initiatives).

"PFIs have always been the NHS's ‘Plan A’ for building new hospitals, especially as they used to be off-balance sheet. There was never a 'Plan B'. Now none of the banks have any money or a likely to have any for a few years, the absence of a ‘Plan B’ is going to cause a real problem in taking new hospitals to conclusion.”

Mrs Main said: "This is deeply worrying for St Albans. Following the decision to move the accident and emergency unit from Hemel Hempstead to Watford, Watford is now a key hospital for St Albans. "This project was agreed on the firm assurance that funding was in place to develop the new £300 million hospital at Watford. However, it now seems that this might be in danger.

"Services are already being run down at Hemel in order to prepare for the move, but concerns have been expressed since before Christmas that the funding may be at risk. "Now we have this worrying Government leak which says, in clear terms, that there is ‘no plan B’ for PFI projects.

"I will be writing to the Secretary of State immediately to ask him to ensure that services for my constituents are protected at this uncertain time, or else there must be a complete halt to the running down of the movement of services from Hemel Hempstead until we have that assurance.”

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