CONTINUING CRITICISM OVER EXCLUSION OF HATFIELD SUPER-HOSPITAL OPTION AS NHS CONSULTATION IS WRAPPED UP IN WEEK BEFORE CHRISTMAS

12.00.00am GMT Mon 17th Dec 2007

"There is something pretty dodgy in setting the final decision meeting on the future of acute hospital services in Hertfordshire for the Wednesday before Christmas," said Sandy Walkington, Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for St Albans. "It is almost total contempt for the public and it is increasingly obvious that this is just one last piece of questionable procedure in this whole shabby exercise."

He highlighted the growing body of evidence and comments from experts that the Hatfield super-hospital option should have been considered more fully in the review of the future of NHS services in Hertfordshire.

"Hatfield was the preferred option of 91 percent of the two and a half thousand households across St Albans who responded to the Liberal Democrat health survey in the summer," Sandy said. "And 90 percent of those St Albans households preferred QE2 over Lister if Hatfield was not built. So the confirmation of Lister as the acute hospital for north and east Herts will be a big disappointment for local people.

"But we now have a pretty damning report into the whole consultation by PPRE, the independent research specialists. They have shown that the work properly to assess the affordability of Hatfield was clearly not done until after the decision had been made to exclude it, and in fact the full report on this did not appear until after the close of the consultation".

PPRE also noted that the key concern of residents is access to care, and for the residents of St Albans and the sutrrounding villages, access will be severely compromised by the proposals. PPRE noted that half of the 18% of households without a car are pensioner households and that the NHS' journey time analysis was based solely on car travel times.

"St Albans City Hospital has emerged with some modest gains including the elective surgery unit. I am thankful for that. But the process was clearly bogus and that gives real cause for concern about what may happen when there are further changes. We cannot expect the NHS to stand still, but we can expect a public service to be transparent and honest in the way it behaves with its users. In that light, Hertfordshire NHS gives no cause for confidence," Sandy concluded.

ENDS

For more information please call Sandy Walkington on 07802 177317

Note to editors

The report by PPRE is referred to as Appendix L on the PCT consultation website

http://www.enherts-pct.nhs.uk/Documents/consultation/meeting/Appendix%20L%20-%20ppre%20Ltd%20report.pdf

The following timeline is also very revealing on the shortcomings of the whole process:

12 June 2007 - launch of consultation

12 June 2007 - meeting of Health Scrutiny Committee (HSC) which then signed off on the plan for consultation - despite having only received it by way of a power-point presentation the very same day.

1 October 2007 - close of consultation

22 October 2007 - posting of detailed report on unaffordability of Hatfield by NHS (after consultation had closed!)

24 October 2007 - meeting of HSC to consider adequacy of consultation process

19 November 2007 - presentation of ORS data on consultation to stakeholder meeting at Fielder Centre - after the HSC meeting

12 December 2007 - publication on website of PPRE report on consultation process