Hospitals (Hertfordshire)

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 10:02 pm on 16 January 2006.

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Photo of Grant Shapps Grant Shapps Co-Chair, Conservative Party 10:02, 16 January 2006

I originally wanted to call the debate, "Financial crisis in Hertfordshire hospitals" but a wise-looking man in the Table Office said that only the Government can declare a crisis in this country, so I had to resort to calling it merely, "Financial deficit in Hertfordshire hospitals". However, to my constituents, many of whom are watching the debate, it is a genuine crisis.

In Welwyn Hatfield and Hertfordshire, circumstances developed that led to an acute hospital, which was responsible for all manner of health care, becoming little more than a community or cottage hospital. It all started approximately six years ago, when the original two trusts merged to form a single East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust. At that time, we were reassured beyond doubt that it was simply an administrative merger that would make the trust's running costs much lower.

Time went on and we found that the Tewin children's ward was being closed down. To our surprise and without notification, the ward was initially closed at weekends, and then permanently, so that people who would otherwise use the Queen Elizabeth II hospital in Welwyn Garden City were expected instead to take their children 14 miles up the motorway to the Lister hospital in Stevenage. That might have been okay if, as we were promised, the paediatric assessment unit had remained open for the first 24 hours of stay. However, constituents learned with some surprise last year that the paediatric assessment unit would also be closed at night, leaving a PAU in place only in the daytime.

Far worse and much more specific, the deficit of some £49 million in Hertfordshire health care this year has compounded matters so that, in East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust, a rescue plan has been put in place. It is always said that it is bad news when the experts are called in to talk about how to make further cuts, and so it was when PricewaterhouseCoopers came to the East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust to explain how more money could be saved to try to right the deficit that had got out of control. A deficit amounting to £49 million over the next three years has been projected. As a result, in addition to losing the children's ward and the night-time operation of the paediatric assessment unit, we are now to lose all children's services during the day, all our blue-light accident and emergency services, and all our maternity services. My twins, Tabytha and Noa, who were born there just 20 months ago, will be among the last children to be born at that hospital because the maternity services are to close. That is not all. All operational activity is to cease. There will be no further operations if the restructuring plan is put in place.

The list goes on, and it is an extensive one. Similar situations are being experienced by my colleagues around the country. This is all in the name of recovering from a financial deficit that is simply going to put lives at risk in Welwyn Hatfield and other parts of Hertfordshire.