THOSE of you still frustrated and angry by West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust’s decision to pull out of running the long-promised Urgent Care Centre in St Albans had better sit down.

Because as you drive to all ends of Hertfordshire to get the healthcare you deserve and pay for, this trust has decided to go all green.

Yes, the trust that runs the few remaining services left at St Albans City Hospital has just announced that it wants to reduce its carbon footprint. Great, but what about the footprint it has created for the people of this district?

You may remember the Urgent Care Centre (always remember the word “urgent”) would have had a “meagre” impact according to Andrew Parker, director of primary care for NHS Hertfordshire, which basically meant that our health chiefs did not think it was worth the money.

But that has not stopped the hospitals trust establishing an energy group to help it become greener.

“One of the group’s main objectives will be to reduce CO2 emissions over the next five years, primarily through the introduction of a new energy facilities project which addresses power, heating, hot water and steam supplies, and insulation and metering.” Nice.

“The trust also aims to increase recycling and improve waste management, which it is already doing through a recycling service for all paper, cardboard, batteries, plastic bottles and glass, and better separation of clinical waste and domestic waste.” Really.

So is the trust telling us that, at the moment, its hospitals are not adequately insulated or metered? And that its heating system is not environmentally friendly or efficient? No wonder it could not afford to run the care centre.

And is it claiming that its staff did not previously recycle enough? Tut tut.

This is 2010 – surely it has been doing all the above for years? And if it needs to join the 21st Century in terms of its fight against climate change, can it not just get some workmen in and place some recycling posters up, rather than setting up an “energy group” which will no doubt cost an unnecessary amount of money?

It is only weeks since out-patients placed West Herts Hospitals NHS Trust in the bottom 20 per cent of the country in 34 out of 40 aspects of a survey.

Its had also been criticised for making its chief executive, Jan Filochowski, the fifth highest earner in the health service with a salary of £246,000, including a ten per cent bonus, in 2008/09.

If the trust asked those living in this district what they wanted from St Albans City Hospital, “more services” would come out on top every time.

I doubt “reduce its carbon footprint” would even make the list.

WE have received a number of calls about our planned charity car wash for terminally-ill Freddie Rowe-Crowder. It is great that the idea has been so well received.

People elsewhere have been less welcoming, so let me set one thing straight.

This car wash is not a campaign and the Review has not launched one. What staff at this newspaper are attempting to do is help Freddie’s family raise money – something which they appreciate.

All donations are welcome because the priority here is helping a seven-year-old who has cancer, not point scoring.

Those involved in the “official campaign” would do well to remember that.