Major NHS decisions in Hertfordshire!

Public consultation went on for months. Yesterday was decision day. The four NHS organisations involved held simultaneous Board Meetings in Hatfield then reached collective decisions:

1. Lister Hospital, in Stevenage, will provide major acute services for East Herts.
2. Welwyn Garden City and Hemel Hempstead will become local general hospitals
3. Eight urgent care centres will be set up across Herts
4. West Herts children's emergency and planned care will be at Watford General Hospital
5. St Albans City Hospital will be the long-term location for an NHS-run Surgi-centre

The Chief Executive of the two Herts Primary Care Trusts, Anne Walker, promised that facilities will be available in the community before major changes take place in hospital services such as A&E.

These decisions will now be considered by Hertfordshire Count Council's health scrutiny committee at meetings planned for January 2008.

A time-table for the changes has yet to be finalised. Some will take place in 2008-09 but others will take much longer.

Previous consultation had already located West Herts acute hospital services in Watford General Hospital, so those services took no part in this consultation.

The future of the regional specialist cancer treatment service currently at Mount Vernon Cancer Centre will be the subject of a separate future review led by the primary care trusts.

Joan