Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what NHS services he expects to be available to residents of Hemel Hempstead from the new facilities to be provided by (a) West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust, (b) Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust, and (c) Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust.

As part of the Your Care, Your Future programme, the Board of West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust approved the Trust’s Strategic Outline Case identifying options for investment in the Trust’s estate in February 2017. The Board approved two options to be worked up in more detail; both would continue to use Watford General Hospital as the location of emergency and specialist care, with St Albans City Hospital further developed as a planned care centre.

Your Care, Your Future includes plans to develop new pathways for care in the community, for example through local general practitioner surgeries and specialised hubs. The plans include the redevelopment of the Hemel Hempstead Hospital as a local hospital/community hub.

Herts Valley Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is currently developing the clinical model of service provision, but the CCG sees the new facility as providing a wide range of health and social care services, including: voluntary and community services, community physical and mental health services and planned care, and outpatient and diagnostic provision.